Potential biomarkers for antidiastole of tuberculous and malignant pleural effusion by proteome analysis

Aim To investigate novel potential biomarkers for antidiastole of tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) from malignant pleural effusion (MPE). Materials & methods iTRAQTM-coupled LC-MS/MS were applied to analyze the proteome of TPE and MPE samples. The candidate proteins were verified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results A total of 432 differential proteins were identified. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed significantly higher levels of fibronectin (FN) and cathepsin G (CTSG) in MPE than in TPE, but lower levels of leukotriene-A4 hydrolase (LTA4H). The receiver operator characteristic values were 0.285 for FN, 0.64 for LTA4H, 0.337 for CTSG and 0.793 for a combination of these candidate markers. Conclusion FN, LTA4H and CTSG were identified as potential biomarkers to differentiate TPE from MPE and their combination exhibited higher diagnostic capacity.