Affiliation:
1. The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University
Abstract
Abstract
Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a significant cause of severe vision loss. The main purpose of this study was to identify mass spectrometry proteomics-based potential biomarkers of AMD that contribute to understanding the mechanisms of disease and aiding in early diagnosis.
Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, a search was performed for studies that used mass Spectrometry (MS) proteomics approaches to identify proteomic differences between AMD patients and healthy control groups (PROSPERO database: CRD42023388093). Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway Analysis (KEGG) were performed on differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in the included articles using the DAVID database. DEPs were included in a meta-analysis when their effect size could be computed in at least two research studies. The effect size for each measured protein was standardized to thelog2-fold change. Protein‒protein interaction (PPI) analysis was conducted on proteins that were statistically significant in the meta-analysis using the String online database.
Results: Eleven studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, and 161 DEPs were identified. The GO analysis showed that AMD is closely associated with proteolysis, extracellular exosomeand protein binding. In KEGG, the most significant pathway was the complement and coagulation cascades. Meta-analysis results suggested that eight proteins were statisticallysignificant, and according to PPI results, the most significant four proteins were serotransferrin(TF), apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1), complement C3 (C3) and lipocalin-1 (LCN1).
Conclusions: Four possible biomarkers, TF, APOA1, C3 and LCN1, were found to be significant in the pathogenesis of AMD and need to be further validated. These proteins should be further studied in larger cohorts to evaluate their potential for disease diagnosis and intervention.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC