Article ID: JJID.2016.355
Mycoplasma pneumoniae(MP) is a leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia in children and young adults. Although MP pneumonia is usually benign and self-limited, in some cases it can develop into a life-threating refractory MP pneumonia(RMPP). However, the pathogenesis of RMPP is poorly understood. The identification and characterization of proteins related to RMPP could provide "proof of principle" to facilitate appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for MP patients. In this study, we applied the quantitative proteomic technique(iTRAQ) to globally analyze MP-related proteins in serum samples from five RMPP and five non-refractory MP pneumonia(NRMPP) patients, and five healthy children. Functional classification, sub-cellular localization, and protein interaction network were carried out based on PANTHER and cytoscape analysis. A total of 260 differentially expressed proteins were identified in the RMPP and NRMPP groups. Compared with the control group, there were 134(70 up-regulated and 64 down-regulated) and 126(63 up-regulated and 63 down-regulated) differentially expressed proteins in the NRMPP and RMPP groups, respectively. The complex functional classification and protein interaction network of the identified proteins reflected the complex pathogenesis of RMPP. Our study provides the first comprehensive proteome map of RMMP-related proteins from MP pneumonia.These profiles may be useful as part of a diagnostic panel, and the identified proteins provides new insight into the potential pathological mechanism underlying RMPP.
