Rheumatology · 7 h ago
Five-Protein Plasma Panel Associated With Structural Damage in Ankylosing Spondylitis
An observational proteomics study used two independent 88-participant cohorts to identify and validate a plasma protein signature associated with high structural damage in ankylosing spondylitis. The five-protein model achieved a validation AUC of 0.917, although its ability to predict future damage was not established.
- Discovery and independent validation cohorts each included 88 participants.
- Five-protein model achieved a validation AUC of 0.917.
- Findings concern current structural damage, not prediction of progression.
- Clinical thresholds and confidence intervals were not reported in the abstract.
Systemic inflammatory markers may not fully reflect pathological bone formation in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Researchers conducted deep plasma proteomics in a prospective discovery cohort of 88 participants: 25 patients with high structural damage, 31 with low damage, and 32 normal controls. Damage groups were defined using the SPARCC sacroiliac joint structural score. Age- and sex-adjusted analyses, protein coexpression analysis, and machine learning were used to identify damage-associated signatures. Five candidate proteins were subsequently assessed by ELISA in an independent 88-participant cohort, comprising 32 high-damage patients, 32 low-damage patients, and 24 controls.
Profiling identified 536 differentially expressed proteins between high-damage patients and controls. A damage-associated protein module was enriched in platelet activation and cell–matrix adhesion. The selected panel comprised ITGA2B, HSPG2, ITGB1, EPHB2, and SAA2. In validation, the combined model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.917, outperforming individual proteins, whose AUCs ranged from 0.732 to 0.819; all Holm-adjusted comparisons had p values below 0.05.
The findings suggest that inflammatory and platelet–extracellular matrix remodeling pathways capture distinct but related aspects of AS structural damage. The panel could potentially complement imaging, but these results concern current damage rather than future progression. The abstract does not report the model’s precise classification comparison, confidence intervals, or performance at clinical thresholds. Full text was unavailable for assessment.
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Arthritis & Rheumatology: Plasma Proteomics Identifies Molecular Signatures and Biomarkers Associated with High Structural Damage in Ankylosing Spondylitis ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.