Maternal urine profile with fetus of neural tube defects by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Objective Using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS)to detect the specific protein biomarkers of maternal urine of the fetus with neural tube defect(sNTDs). Methods Of the 35 maternal urine samples obtained,20 were from patients whose fetus were NTDs and 15 were from healthy volunteers undergoing pregnancy routine μltrasonography examination. 10 spina bifida,5 anencephaly and 5 hydrencephaly were included in NTDs. All fasting urine samples about 5ml were obtained early in the morning and then the urine samples were centrifugated. Proteinchip reader PBS Ⅱ C and CM10 chip (Ciphergen Biosystems) were utilized. The optimal detection mass / charge size(m/z)range was between 1000 and 30 000 Da. The data was analyzed by ProteinChip Software (version 3.1.1;Ciphergen Biosystems). Results A total of 39 qualified mass peaks (signal-to-noise ratio5)were detected in NTDs and control group . Compared with the spectra of control group,there were 5 potential biomarkers detected in the spectra of NTDs group. The protein expression was high in 4 of 5(m/z 8 320,8 209,9 099,10 567)and low in the 1 of 5(m/z 3 458). The Biomarker Pattern Software automatically,under given conditions,selected 2 biomarker proteins(m/z 9 096,8 244)to be used to establish a three layer de- cision tree to differentiate NTDs from control. The sensitivity and specificity of decision tree was 80.0% and 93.3%,respectively. Conclusion The screening on specific urine protein biomarkers of NTDs can be performed by SELDI-TOF-MS,and it may be used for the early pregnan- cy diagnosis with NTDs.