Proteomics analysis of biological fluids of sleeping sickness patients

Background: Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also called sleeping sickness, is one of 20 in WHO’s list of ‘Neglected Tropical Diseases’, for which, less than 3,500 cases are reported each year. The disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Even though the clinical symptoms are well described, physiological aspects of the disease remain unclear. Diagnosis of the disease is difficult, requiring a lumbar puncture to determine the disease stage and guide treatment. Identifying new markers for disease stage has been a challenge for many years. Methods and Findings: In our study, a liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry tandem approach (LC-MS/MS) provides a new way to establish the proteomic profile of patients in stages 1 and 2 of the disease. The biological fluids (serum, cerebrospinal fluid, urine and saliva) of three uninfected controls, three patients with stage 1 disease, and four patients with stage 2 disease, are analyzed. In addition, quantification of samples from 14 controls, 23 patients with stage 1 disease and 43 patients with stage 2 disease by ELISA completes this analysis, and highlights two potential new markers, neuroserpin and moesin, with the latter present in urine — an easily accessed fluid. Conclusion: These result suggest that quantifying proteins present in biological fluids by LC-MS/MS) could provide new biomarkers for the diagnosis and stage discrimination of HAT.