Study on potential markers protein for diagnosis of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

  Objective  To compare differential expression of proteome in standard Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains and dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains so as to explore diagnostic markers related to latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

  Methods  The samples of standard Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain and latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection strain induced by standard strain (dormant strains) were selected, and each sample was cultured for three dishes. The strains of two sets of samples were cracked and proteins were extracted, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) detection and quantitative analysis was performed, expression data of related proteome in standard strains and dormant strains were obtained, and bioinformatics techniques such as protein enrichment and signal pathway analysis were used to classify the differential proteins and further identify the related proteins involved in the energy metabolism pathway.

  Results  A total of 64 proteins were differently expressed in the 187 detected proteins, of which 40 proteins were up-regulated and 24 proteins were down-regulated. Differently expressed proteins were mainly related to bacterial energy metabolism. P9WPC9 expression had a significant difference between dormant strains and standard strains.

  Conclusion  P9WPC9 protein is mainly involved in the energy metabolism pathway of bacteria and may be a potential diagnostic marker for tuberculosis latent infection.