C-P.24: From Proteome Profiles to Clinical Diagnosis in Children with Bone and Joint Infections
[sponser-meet-now-chat][/sponser-meet-now-chat]
Background: Bone and joint infections (BJI) in children represent a diagnostic challenge due to their clinical overlap with transient synovitis (TS). Current diagnostic approaches rely on clinical scoring systems, inflammatory markers and imaging, yet none achieve sufficient sensitivity to distinguish the two conditions without invasive procedures. Plasma proteomics offers a non-invasive approach to address this diagnostic gap, as mass spectrometry-based proteomics captures the systemic host response at a molecular resolution beyond what is achievable with single biomarker measurements.
Methods and Results: We performed untargeted liquid chromatography mass spectrometry of plasma samples from 262 pediatric patients across five inflammatory disease groups, including BJI (n=142) and TS (n=83). Following preprocessing, batch correction and imputation, differential abundance analysis identified 118 significantly differentially abundant proteins between BJI and TS (FDR-adjusted p<0.05). The most strongly upregulated proteins in BJI included the acute phase reactants SAA1, SAA2 and CRP, while apolipoproteins were among the most downregulated. Reactome pathway enrichment revealed significant enrichment of Toll-like receptor signalling, innate immune activation and neutrophil degranulation in BJI, alongside suppression of metabolic and lipid transport pathways.
Perspective: Ongoing analyses aim to stratify BJI by microbiological confirmation status to identify pathogen-specific proteomic signatures. We are developing a plasma proteomics-based machine learning model to distinguish BJI from TS, with the long-term perspective of providing a clinical decision support tool guiding clinicians between surgical intervention and conservative management to reduce unnecessary invasive procedures in children with suspected BJI.
Co-authors: Allan Bybeck Nielsen, Anna Benedetti, Anna Melidi, Nicolai Wewer Albrechtsen, Ulrikka Nygaard, Annelaura Bach Nielsen
Contact Attendee
Warning: Attempt to read property "user_email" on string in /home/1276969.cloudwaysapps.com/ydbgzhdjeq/public_html/wp-content/plugins/my-conference-now/functions.php on line 2826