Prevalence and impact of sarcopenia in individuals with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (the SARC-HF study): A prospective observational study protocol

Sarcopenia, a clinical syndrome primarily associated with reduced muscle mass in the elderly, has a negative impact on quality of life and survival. It can occur secondarily to other diseases such as heart failure (HF), a complex clinical syndrome with high morbidity and mortality. The simultaneous occurrence of these two conditions can worsen the prognosis of their carriers, especially in the most severe cases of HF, as in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). However, due to the heterogeneous diagnostic criteria for sarcopenia, estimates of its prevalence present a wide variation, leading to new criteria having been recently proposed for its diagnosis, emphasizing muscle strength and function rather than skeletal muscle mass. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of sarcopenia and/or dynapenia in individuals with HF with reduced LVEF according to the most recent criteria, and compare the gene and protein expression of those patients with and without sarcopenia. The secondary objectives are to evaluate the association of sarcopenia and/or dynapenia with the risk of clinical events and death, quality of life, cardiorespiratory capacity, ventilatory efficiency, and respiratory muscle strength. The participants will answer questionnaires to evaluate sarcopenia and quality of life, and will undergo the following tests: handgrip strength, gait speed, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, respiratory muscle strength, cardiopulmonary exercise, as well as genomic and proteomic analysis, and dosage of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and growth differentiation factor-15. An association between sarcopenia and/or dynapenia with unfavorable clinical evolution is expected to be found, in addition to reduced quality of life, cardiorespiratory capacity, ventilatory efficiency, and respiratory muscle strength.

Analysis of the salivary proteome in gingivitis patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Gingivitis is a disease that is characterized by inflammation of the gingival tissue, which can progress to periodontitis and tooth loss. Although many studies have attempted to identify salivary proteins that are associated with the disease, this is the first study to use a proteomic approach to analyze and compare the proteomic profile of whole saliva from gingivitis patients and healthy controls.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

To analyze the saliva proteome, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography were used, followed by mass spectrometry.

RESULTS

The analyses showed that gingival inflammation was associated with increased amounts of blood proteins (serum albumin and hemoglobin), immunoglobulin peptides and keratins. In the control group, salivary cystatins, which were detected using capillary Liquid Chromatography on line to electrospray ionization Quadrupole Time-of-flight mass spectrometry, appeared to be more abundant.

CONCLUSION

This approach provides novel insight into profiles of the salivary proteome during gingival inflammation, which may contribute to improvements in diagnosis.

Proteome analysis of embryogenic cell suspensions of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)

Using a combination of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis protein mapping and mass spectrometry analysis, we have established proteome reference maps of embryogenic cell suspensions of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). The cell suspensions were generated from young primary leaves and contained basically pro-embryogenic masses, which enabled us to dissect their proteome composition while eliminating the complexity of too many cell types. Over 550 proteins could reproducibly be resolved over a pI range of 3-10. A total of 128 of the most abundant protein spots were excised, digested in-gel with trypsin and analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry. This enabled the identification of 67 protein spots. Two of the most abundant proteins were identified as a chitinase and as a ribonuclease belonging to the family of PR-4 and PR-10 proteins, respectively. The expression of the respective genes was confirmed by RT-PCR and the pattern of deposition of the PR-10 protein in cell suspensions as well as in developing cowpea seeds, roots, shoots and flowers were determined by Western blot experiments, using synthetic antibodies raised against a 14-amino acid synthetic peptide located close to the C-terminal region of the PR-10 protein.