Microstrip isoelectric focusing with deep learning for simultaneous screening of diabetes, anemia, and thalassemia.

BACKGROUND: Hemoglobin (Hb) is an important protein in red blood cells and a crucial diagnostic indicator of diseases, e.g., diabetes, thalassemia, and anemia. However, there is a rare report on methods for the simultaneous screening of diabetes, anemia, and thalassemia. Isoelectric focusing (IEF) is a common separative tool for the separation and analysis of Hb. However, the current analysis of IEF images is time-consuming and cannot be used for simultaneous screening. Therefore, an artificial intelligence (AI) of IEF image recognition is desirable for accurate, sensitive, and low-cost screening. RESULTS: Herein, we proposed a novel comprehensive method based on microstrip isoelectric focusing (mIEF) for detecting the relative content of Hb species. There was a good coincidence between the quantitation of Hb via a conventional automated hematology analyzer and the one via mIEF with R2 = 0.9898. Nevertheless, our results showed that the accuracy of disease diagnosis based on the quantification of Hb species alone is as low as 69.33 %, especially for the simultaneous screening of multiple diseases of diabetes, anemia, alpha-thalassemia, and beta-thalassemia. Therefore, we introduced a ResNet1D-based diagnosis model for the improvement of screening accuracy of multiple diseases. The results showed that the proposed model could achieve a high accuracy of more than 90 % and a good sensitivity of more than 96 % for each disease, indicating the overwhelming advantage of the mIEF method combined with deep learning in contrast to the pure mIEF method. SIGNIFICANCE: Overall, the presented method of mIEF with deep learning enabled, for the first time, the absolute quantitative detection of Hb, relative quantitation of Hb species, and simultaneous screening of diabetes, anemia, alpha-thalassemia, and beta-thalassemia. The AI-based diagnosis assistant system combined with mIEF, we believe, will help doctors and specialists perform fast and precise disease screening in the future.

Molecular Basis and Hematologic Phenotype of Hemoglobin H Disease Combined with Two Rare ß-Globin Mutations.

In area where α-thalassemia and ß-thalassemia are prevalent, the coinheritance of hemoglobin H disease (Hb H disease) and ß-thalassemia are not uncommon and could result in complex thalassemia intermedia syndromes. In this study, we investigate the hematological and molecular characteristics of two previously undescribed cases that co-inherited Hb H disease and rare ß-globin gene (HBB) mutations found in Chinese populations. Proband I was a boy with Hb H disease in association with IVS-II-5(G > C) (HBB:c0.315 + 5G > C) mutation. Proband II was a boy with a combination of Hb H and Hb Zengcheng [ß114(G16) Leu > Met; HBB:c.343C > A]. Both of them had mild hypochromic microcytic anemia, and neither had ever received a blood transfusion. In both cases, the level of Hb A2 was within normal range, and no Hb H was detected, but a small amount of Hb Bart's was observed in proband I. Routine DNA analysis detected the deletional Hb H disease in both cases. IVS-II-5(G > C) (HBB:c0.315 + 5G > C) and Hb Zengcheng (HBB:c.343C > A) mutations were found by DNA sequencing of ß-globin gene. The co-inheritance of Hb H disease with rare ß-thalassemia may result in an atypical pattern of Hb H disease, and further investigation of rare genotypes should be conducted to avoid missed diagnosis.

Integration of targeted sequencing and pseudo-tetraploid genotyping into clinically assisted decision support for ß-thalassemia invasive prenatal diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: The high prevalence of ß-thalassemia indicates the severe medical burden in Guangxi province in China. Millions of thousands of prenatal women with healthy or thalassemia-carrying fetuses received an unnecessary prenatal diagnosis. We designed a prospective single-center proof-of-concept study to evaluate the utility of a noninvasive prenatal screening method in the stratification of beta-thalassemia patients before invasive procedures. METHODS: Next-generation and optimized pseudo-tetraploid genotyping-based methods were utilized in preceding invasive diagnosis stratification to predict the mater-fetus genotype combinations in cell-free DNA, which is from maternal peripheral blood. Populational linkage disequilibrium information with additional neighboring loci to infer the possible fetal genotype. The concordance of the pseudo-tetraploid genotyping with the gold standard invasive molecular diagnosis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of this method. RESULTS: 127 ß-thalassemia carrier parents were consecutively recruited. The total genotype concordance rate is 95.71%. The Kappa value was 0.8248 for genotype combinations and 0.9118 for individual alleles. CONCLUSION: This study offers a new approach to picking out the health or carrier fetus before invasive procedures. It provides valuable novel insight into patient stratification management on ß-thalassemia prenatal diagnosis.

An efficient isoelectric focusing of microcolumn array chip for screening of adult Beta-Thalassemia.

Traditional capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF), liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) still suffered from low resolution for hemoglobinopathy screening. Herein, a 30-mm pH 5.2-7.8 microcolumn IEF (mIEF) array chip was developed for hemoglobinopathy screening. As a proof of concept, adult beta-thalassemia was chosen as a model disease. In the method, blood samples were hemolyzed via hemolysin solution and loaded into the microcolumn. The experiments showed that (i) the species of Hb A, F, A2 and variants were clearly separated in the chip, and the resolution was greatly higher than the ones of LC/CZE/cIEF; (ii) up to 24 samples could be simultaneously analyzed in 12-min run; (iii) the intraday and interday RSDs were respectively 3.32-4.91 % and 4.07-5.33 %. The assays of mIEF to total 634 samples were compared with the ones of LC (n = 327) and PCR (n = 307). The cutoff of 3.5 % HbA2 led to the sensitivity of 100 % and specificity of 89.1 % for the mIEF-based screening; and there was 96.7 % coincidence between the methods of mIEF and PCR if refer Hb A2 and F. The method had the merits of facility, efficiency, specificity and sensitivity in contrast to the currently-used methods, implying its potential to screening of beta-thalassemia and hemoglobinopathies.

A Novel Mutation at HBB: c.91delA (Codon 30, -A) Causing ß-Thalassemia in a Chinese Family.

ß-Thalassemia is a genetic disease characterized by the defective synthesis of the hemoglobin tetramer ß-globin chains. So far, a number of mutations have been identified and associated with this genetic disease. A high incidence of thalassemia has been found in Guangxi (China). Herein, we report a case of a patient with slightly increased HbA2 levels (4.6%). Based on the clinical data and laboratory findings, the patient was diagnosed with ß-thalassemia. Routine genetic screening tests were negative. Sequencing revealed an A deletion at codon 30 (HBB: c.91delA) and the genotype of this patient was ßCD30M/ß. This mutation changes the splice receptor site of intron 1 from AG to GG, which likely abolishes splicing at the normal 5' splicing site and may cause ß0-thalassemia. Based on hematological and clinical evaluations, this novel mutation was regarded as a ß0-thalassemia allele. A homozygosity or compound heterozygosity of this mutation and other ß0-thalassemia alleles can lead to severe thalassemia disease.