An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different stocking densities on serum corticosterone (CORT), ovotransferrin (OVT), α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) and ceruloplasmin (CP) concentrations, brain heat shock protein (HSP) 70 expression and performance in broiler chickens exposed to unheated and heated conditions. Day-old chicks were stocked at 0.100 m(2)/bird (low density (LD)) or 0.063 m(2)/bird (high density (HD)), in battery cages and housed in environmentally controlled rooms. From 21 to 35 days of age, birds from each stocking density group were exposed to either 24 or 32 °C. Growth performance was recorded during the heat treatment period, and blood and brain samples were collected to determine CORT, OVT, AGP, CP and HSP 70 levels on day 35. Heat treatment but not stocking density was detrimental to growth performance. There were significant temperature × density interactions for CORT, CP and OVT on day 35. Although HD elevated CORT, CP and OVT when compared to LD, the effects of the former were more obvious under heated condition. Both temperature and density had significant effect on AGP and HSP 70. In conclusion, irrespective of temperature, high stocking density was physiologically stressful to broiler chickens, as indicated by CORT, AGP, CP, OVT and HSP 70, but not detrimental to growth performance and survivability. As it was shown in the present study, AGP, CP and OVT could be useful biomarkers to determine the effect of overcrowding and high temperature on the welfare of broiler chickens.
Leptospirosis is an emerging zoonotic infectious disease in Malaysia. The symptoms of leptospirosis vary from mild nonspecific flu-like illness to a severe condition which is usually associated with serious complication and fatality. To study the protein expression profile of mild and severe leptospirosis, 15 paired sera were collected from the patients who were mildly infected and following that progressed to severe stage. The proteome profiles of mild and severe cases were studied using 2DE analysis in combination with LC-MS/MS. The expression of proteins that were significantly different and had a fold difference of at least 2 had been identified and then validated using Western blot. Our study demonstrated apolipoprotein A-I (APOA-I), serum amyloid A (SAA), transferrin (TF), haptoglobin (HP) and transthyretin (TTR) have significantly different expression between mild and severe leptospirosis. The Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software suggested the expression of these five proteins were modulated by acute phase response signaling pathway. Besides that, a functional network of lipid metabolism, molecular transport and small molecule biochemistry that interconnects these five proteins with interactomes also had been predicted by this software. In conclusion, this finding supports the potential of these five proteins to be the biomarkers for mild and severe human leptospirosis.
The association between the acute-phase reactant proteins (APRPs) and cancer has long been established. There have been numerous reports correlating altered levels of various APRPs with different types of cancers. However, researchers are often quick to dismiss the use of these APRPs as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and monitoring of cancer because alterations in APRP concentrations are observed in a wide range of diseases. Recent progress in proteomics studies which profiled the serum proteins of cancer patients and those of normal individuals indicated that the altered APRP expressions were different for distinct types, subtypes, and even stages of cancer. Interestingly, these data are in agreement with those observed earlier using immunochemical and biochemical assays. In view of this compelling association of different patterns of APRPs with various types of cancers and in an apparent shift of paradigm, we present in this review some indications that APRP fingerprinting may be used as complementary cancer biomarkers.
Prolonged chewing of betel quid is known to cause oral diseases, including cancer. The present study was performed to screen for aberrant proteins in the saliva of habitual betel quid chewers compared to nonchewers. Saliva of female subjects (n = 10) who had been chewing betel quid for more than 20 years and nonbetel quid chewers (n = 10) of the same gender and range of age was analyzed by gel-based proteomics. Increased structural microheterogeneity of saliva haptoglobin beta chains indicated by shifts of focused spots similar to that earlier reported in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma, and their relatively higher abundance compared to nonbetel quid chewers, were detected in saliva protein profiles of all chewers. In addition, the majority of the betel quid chewers also showed significant higher abundance of hemopexin, alpha-1B glycoprotein, alpha1-antitrypsin, complement C3, and transthyretin. These proteins had previously been associated with several different cancers. Our data demonstrated different forms of protein aberration in the saliva of betel quid chewers, which may be indicative of early oral precancerous conditions.
The general enhanced expression of alpha1-antichymotrypsin (ACT), clusterin (CLU), alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT), haptoglobin beta-chain (HAP), and leucine rich glycoprotein (LRG) in the sera of patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOCa) was recently reported. In the present study, we compared the expression of the serum acute-phase proteins (APPs) in the patients according to their stages of cancer.
Leptospirosis, a notifiable endemic disease in Malaysia, has higher mortality rates than regional dengue fever. Diverse clinical symptoms and limited diagnostic methods complicate leptospirosis diagnosis. The demand for accurate biomarker-based diagnostics is increasing. This study investigated the plasma proteome of leptospirosis patients with leptospiraemia and seroconversion compared with dengue patients and healthy subjects using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-mass spectrometry (MS). The iTRAQ analysis identified a total of 450 proteins, which were refined to a list of 290 proteins through a series of exclusion criteria. Differential expression in the plasma proteome of leptospirosis patients compared to the control groups identified 11 proteins, which are apolipoprotein A-II (APOA2), C-reactive protein (CRP), fermitin family homolog 3 (FERMT3), leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG1), lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP), myosin-9 (MYH9), platelet basic protein (PPBP), platelet factor 4 (PF4), profilin-1 (PFN1), serum amyloid A-1 protein (SAA1), and thrombospondin-1 (THBS1). Following a study on a verification cohort, a panel of eight plasma protein biomarkers was identified for potential leptospirosis diagnosis: CRP, LRG1, LBP, MYH9, PPBP, PF4, SAA1, and THBS1. In conclusion, a panel of eight protein biomarkers offers a promising approach for leptospirosis diagnosis, addressing the limitations of the "one disease, one biomarker" concept.