Identification of potential plasma biomarkers for abdominal aortic aneurysm using tandem mass tag quantitative proteomics

Plasma biomarkers that identify abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture risk would greatly assist in stratifying patients with small aneurysms. Identification of such biomarkers has hitherto been unsuccessful over a range of studies using different methods. The present study used an alternative proteomic approach to find new, potential plasma AAA biomarker candidates. Pre-fractionated plasma samples from twelve patients with AAA and eight matched controls without aneurysm were analyzed by mass spectrometry applying a tandem mass tag (TMT) technique. Eight proteins were differentially regulated in patients compared to controls, including decreased levels of the enzyme bleomycin hydrolase. The down-regulation of this enzyme was confirmed in an extended validation study using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The TMT-based proteomic approach thus identified novel potential plasma biomarkers for AAA.