Salivary proteomic analysis as a method of characterizing individuals with Crohn's disease whether or not they underwent surgical intervention

• Grant number: 23/14921-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Carolina Magalhães
• Grantee: Júlia Pardini Benício
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru (FOB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Crohn's disease (CD) is a classic example of inflammatory bowel disease that has beenextensively investigated, primarily due to the increased incidence in both developed anddeveloping countries. The aim of this project is to assess the salivary protein profile ofindividuals with Crohn's disease, who have either undergone surgical intervention orachieved clinical remission, in order to identify proteins that can characterize thisdisease in relation to surgical outcomes or clinical remission. The study will involve 10individuals with CD undergoing pharmacological treatment and achieving clinicalremission, 10 individuals undergoing pharmacological treatment with surgicalintervention, along with 10 healthy individuals (control group). These participants willbe recruited from the Gastroenterology outpatient clinic at the Hospital das Clínicas deBotucatu-SP. Inclusion criteria will be age > 40 years, having a confirmed diagnosis ofCD for more than 6 months based on established clinical criteria, and signing theinformed consent form. Exclusion criteria will include a diagnosis of indeterminatecolitis, pregnancy, and having chronic diseases such as cardiac, hepatic, renal,hematological, oncological, or infectious diseases in an active or decompensated state.Control group participants will be excluded if they have gastrointestinal symptoms suchas abdominal pain, dyspepsia, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, or abdominal bloating.Stimulated total saliva samples will be collected from each participant and prepared forproteomic analysis. Finally, these samples will be analyzed using a mass spectrometercoupled with chromatography (LC-ESI-MS/MS, Waters, Wilmslow, United Kingdom)and typical peptide analysis in the ACQUITY UPLC system (Waters, USA). Proteinidentification will be performed using the ProteinLynx Global Server (PLGS) softwareversion 3.03 (Waters, USA), and the results will be based on the UniProt database ofHomo sapiens. The expression difference between the groups will be calculated usingthe Monte Carlo algorithm and expressed as p<0.05 for under expressed proteins and 1-p>0.95 for overexpressed proteins. Finally, the salivary proteins presented in each groupwill be compared and classified according to the expression terms of the Generic GeneOntology Mapper from Princeton University (GO TermFinder).