Urine peptides in human kidney transplantation: research for a differential profile on operational tolerance

Author(s)

Maisa Carla Silveira Takenaka

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Medicina (FM/SBD)
• Defense date: 2010-07-16

Examining board members

Veronica Porto Carreiro de Vasconcellos Coelho; Leticia Labriola; Adriana Franco Paes Leme

• Advisor: Veronica Porto Carreiro de Vasconcellos Coelho

Abstract

A special group of renal transplant recipients maintain stable graft function after the complete withdrawal of immunosuppression, achieving a state called operational tolerance. To date, there are no cellular or molecular biomarkers to discriminate human transplantation tolerance and the underlying mechanisms are being investigated. The profile of urinary peptides may provide important information about different renal physiopathological statuses. We investigated whether operational tolerance displays a differential urinary peptide profile, potentially relevant as biomarkers or for the understanding of mechanisms involved in tolerance. We performed qualitative analysis of peptide urinary extracts in individuals from different study groups: healthy (HI, n=6), operational tolerance (OT, n=5), chronic rejection (CR, n=8) e stable under conventional immunosuppression (Sta, n=5), using Shotgun proteomics. Altogether, we identified 15283 different peptides, corresponding to 646 distinct proteins, distributed in all groups: OT = 189, CR = 296, Sta = 205, and 219 proteins in HI. Several proteins were exclusively detected in specific groups: OT showed 87 exclusive proteins, CR 168, Sta 106 and HI 108 proteins. Although the exclusive proteins were not shared by all individuals from that specific group, all individuals from each group presented several of the group-exclusive proteins (each individual presented an average of 15% of the proteins exclusive to his group). Of the 646 proteins identified, only 2.3% were classified in Gene Ontology as related to the immune system and the most frequent cellular compartments were: 36% from nucleus and 23% cytoplasmic. Of notice, some proteins related to the immune response were also group-exclusive, such as, in OT, a C-C motif chemokine 24 (CCL24) and Endothelin-1, and beta 2 microglobulin in CR. These proteins may display relevant roles in the mechanisms involved in these clinical statuses. In conclusion, the proteomic approach used in this study allowed the identification of a differential urinary peptide profile in each different study groups. The differential urinary peptides and their corresponding proteins may display a relevant role functional or as biomarkers - in the state of homeostasis and in different clinical outcomes in renal transplantation (AU)