A19 PROTEOMICS FOR PREDICTING NECROTIZING ENTEROCOLITIS IN THE PREMATURE NEONATE

Background

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) represents a major challenge in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). The search for indicators that could be used to predict the development of NEC, which would provide more time to apply targeted interventions in the NICU before the appearance of the symptoms is required.

Aims

The aim of the present work was to investigate the potential of fecal proteomics signatures for NEC prediction

Methods

In the present study, stools from 132 very low birth weight infants (less than 1500 g and born younger than 30 weeks) were collected daily in the context of a multi-center prospective study. Seven of the infants received a stage 3 NEC diagnosis. Stools collected up to 10 days before diagnosis were included and each NEC was matched with 2 non-NEC controls. These samples had been used to evaluate various biomarkers by ELISA in a previous study, which revealed that lipocalin-2 and calprotectin used in conjunction can allow the prediction of half of very low birth weight infants 7 days before their NEC diagnosis (Thibault et al., Ped Res 2021). Herein, we explore a proteomics approach to investigate whether this predictability can be improved. The same stool samples were thus prepared and processed for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer analysis (TripleTOF 5600) coupled with SWATH acquisition software.

Results

Data were analyzed by Skyline using the peptide transition list of a spectral library leading to the identification of 1374 proteins with a minimum of two peptides. From these, 192 proteins (1061 peptides) were detected at strong levels in a majority of the samples while 37 of them (2–4 peptides/protein, 102 peptides) were found to display significantly altered levels between NEC and non-NEC samples (17 up; 20 down) based on statistical analyzes and displaying an AUC ≥ 0.7 (ROC curve). Interestingly, both sets of peptides for the NEC samples were significantly different from controls for all three tested periods (group 1: -10 to -7, group 2: -6 to -3, and group 3: -2 to +1 days before diagnosis) using One-way ANOVA Dunnett’s multiple comparison test, p < 0.001. Furthermore, analyzing the data for each infant confirmed the usefulness of the peptide signature for predicting NEC development in 6 of the 7 available cases one week in advance of the diagnosis.

Conclusions

Taken together, these results indicate that stool proteomics represents a promising potential approach for predicting NEC in very low-weight infants.

Funding Agencies

CIHR

Prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers and predisposition to frustration at 7 months: Results from the MIREC study

BACKGROUND

Prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) has been associated with cognitive deficits and behavioral problems in children. To date, no study has examined this exposure in association with neurobehavioral development in infants younger than 12 months assessed with observational tasks.

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the relation between prenatal PBDE concentrations and predisposition to frustration, assessed by the arm restraint task (ART), in Canadian infants.

METHODS

In a prospective longitudinal study conducted in Canada, exposure to nine PBDE congeners was measured in maternal plasma during the first trimester of pregnancy. The ART was used to measure predisposition to frustration in infancy (N = 333; mean age = 6.9 months), as assessed by negative vocalizations (crying and screaming) and physical reactivity (discomfort movements).

RESULTS

Maternal plasma PBDE-47 concentrations collected during pregnancy were associated with negative vocalizations using the ART (adjusted Relative Risk [aRR] = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.09). Prenatal PBDE-99 concentrations during pregnancy were also related to a shift to the left in the tail of the distribution of onset of negative vocalizations as measured by a decrease of 38 s (95% CI: -78.1, 1.3) in the 75th quantile of the distribution for infants whose mothers had detectable levels of PBDE-99 compared to infants of mothers with undetectable levels. Similarly, infants whose mothers had detectable levels of PBDE-100 showed an increase of 24.1 s (95% CI: 4.1, 44.1) in the 75th quantile of the distribution of proportion of time in negative vocalizations compared with infants of mothers with undetectable levels. Finally, the association between PBDE-47 and PBDE-153, and physical reactivity was significantly modified by sex (p < 0.1), with opposite patterns in girls and boys.

CONCLUSIONS

Prenatal exposure to PBDEs was associated with increased incidence of crying and screaming with delayed onset of discomfort movement, which may indicate a predisposition to frustration and lack of habituation in infants younger than 12 months from the general population.