CHARACTERIZATION OF INDIVIDUALS WITH ULCERATIVE RETOCOLITIS UNDERGOING CONVENTIONAL OR ADVANCED THERAPY USING SALIVARY PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS

• Grant number: 23/13419-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: March 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Ana Carolina Magalhães
• Grantee: Anna Luisa Bizotto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru (FOB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Ulcerative Colitis represents one of the most common inflammatory bowel diseases, making it relevant to study and understand its characteristics. Therefore, the objective of this study will be to evaluate the salivary protein profile of individuals with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), in order to identify proteins that can help characterize the phenotype of this disease according to the therapy conventional or advanced (biologicals or JAK inhibitors). Fourteen individuals with UC in clinical remission and or mild activity will participate, seven on conventional therapy and seven on advanced therapy, fourteen on moderate/ severe activity will also participate, seven on conventional therapy and seven on advanced therapy. Finally, fourteen healthy individuals will be inclued (control group). These participants will be recruited from the Gastroenterology outpatient clinic in Botucatu, SP. Inclusion criteria will be age > 35 years and UC diagnosed for more than 6 months based on established clinical criteria established for the disease signature and agreement of the consent term , with the signing of the informed consent form. Exclusion criteria will include having chronic diseases such as cardiac, hepatic, renal, hematological, oncological, or infectious diseases in an active or decompensated state. Stimulated total saliva samples will be collected from each participant and prepared for proteomic analysis. The saliva samples will be analyzed using a mass spectrometer coupled with chromatography (LC-ESI-MS/MS, Waters, Wilmslow, United Kingdom) and typical peptide analysis in the ACQUITY UPLC system (Waters, USA). Protein identification will be performed using the ProteinLynx Global Server (PLGS) software version 3.03 (Waters, USA), and the results will be based on the UniProt database of Homo sapiens. The expression difference between the groups will be calculated using the Monte Carlo algorithm and expressed as p<0.05 for proteins present in lower abundance and 1-p>0.95 for proteins present in higher abundance. Finally, the salivary proteins presented in each group will be compared and classified according to the expression terms of the Generic Gene Ontology Mapper from Princeton University (GO TermFinder).