Protein profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells as a candidate biomarker for Behçet's disease

To investigate the pathophysiology of Behçet's disease (BD) and find biomarkers for the disease, we analysed protein profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

Proteins, extracted from PBMCs, were comprehensively analysed in 16 patients with BD, 16 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 12 patients with Crohn's disease (CD), and 16 healthy control subjects (HC) by 2-dimensional differential gel electrophoResis (2D-DIGE). Differently expressed proteins were identified by mass spectrometry.

563 protein spots were detected. We completely discriminated between the BD and HC groups, between the BD and RA groups, and between the BD and CD groups by multivariate analysis of intensity of 23, 35, and 1 spots, respectively. The spots contributing to the differences included proteins related to cytoskeleton, transcription/translation, T cell activation, bone turnover, regulating apoptosis, and microbial infection. Intensity of 3 spots (tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type 4, threonine synthase-like 2, and β-actin) provided area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) of 0.889 for discrimination between the BD group and the non-BD groups. Informatively, intensity of the above 1 spot completely discriminated the CD group from the other groups (AUROC 1.000). This spot, identified as β-actin, had different pI from the above β-actin-spot probably due to different post-translational modification.

PBMC protein profiles, especially the profile of the 3 spots, would be candidate biomarkers for BD. The latter β-actin subtype would be useful for discriminating inflammatory bowel diseases from BD and other diseases. The identified proteins may play important roles in the pathophysiology of BD.