Relevant proteins for the monitoring of engraftment phases after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

ABSTRACT

Abstract Introduction Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) has been successfully used as standard therapy for hematological disorders. After conditioning therapy, patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT, present three different phases of engraftment: early pre-engraftment, early post-engraftment, and late engraftment. Severe complications are associated with morbidity, mortality, and malignancies in these phases, which include effects on the oral cavity. Objectives The changes in the salivary composition after HSCT may contribute to identifying relevant proteins that could map differences among the phases of diseases, driven for personalized diagnostics and therapy. Methods Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from patients submitted to HSCT. The samples were submitted to trypsin digestion for a Mass spectrometry analysis. MaxQuant processed the Data analysis, and the relevant expressed proteins were subjected to pathway and network analyses. Results Differences were observed in the most identified proteins, specifically in proteins involved with the regulation of body fluid levels and the mucosal immune response. The heatmap showed a list of proteins exclusively expressed during the different phases of HSCT: HBB, KNG1, HSPA, FGB, APOA1, PFN1, PRTN3, TMSB4X, YWHAZ, CAP1, ACTN1, CLU and ALDOA. Bioinformatics analysis implicated pathways involved in protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, complement and coagulation cascades, apoptosis signaling, and cholesterol metabolism. Conclusion The compositional changes in saliva reflected the three phases of HSCT and demonstrated the usefulness of proteomics and computational approaches as a revolutionary field in diagnostic methods.