Abstract

To investigate the different expressions of protein spectra in sera from children with infectious mononucleosis (IM) at acute stage and recovery stage in order to screen out potential protein biomarkers for children IM, the fingerprints of serum protein were obtained from the healthy (controls), acute upper respiratory infection (AURI), acute IM and recovery IM children using surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) and gold chip technique. Data were analyzed by Biomarker Wizard 3.1 and diagnostic models were established by Biomarker Patterns System 5.0. Within the mass to charge (m/z) ratios, there were six protein peaks (five were down-expressed and one over-expressed) showing significant differences between the acute IM group and the control group (P < 0.05). One down-expressed protein peak was found with differential expression levels in the acute and recover IM groups (P < 0.05). Two protein peaks were found significant differences between the acute IM and AURI (P < 0.05), one was down-expressed and the other was over-expressed. No significant difference in protein expression between the recovery IM and the controls (P > 0.05). The established diagnostic model based on significative peak test, the specificity and the sensitivity of IM. All the analytical results suggested that the protein at 6421.5 (M/Z value) may be the serum biomarker for IM; the protein bank showed that the protein at 6421.5 is a new protein; the diagnostic models based on this peak could accurately distinguish acute IM from normal children, the recovery IM children. SELI-TOF-MS technology is an effective tool to search for disease-related proteins.

Key words: Infectious mononucleosis (IM), proteomics, biomarker, artificial neural network.