LGALS3BP: A Potential Plasma Biomarker Associated with Diagnosis and Prognosis in Patients with Sepsis

Purpose: This study aimed to screen differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in plasma of patients with sepsis through data-independent acquisition (DIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), and provide convenient and accurate serum markers for determining the condition of septic patients.

Methods: A total of 53 septic patients and 16 normal controls who were admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University between January 2019 and December 2020 were enrolled in this study; 6 specimens from the normal group and 15 from the sepsis group were randomly selected for DIA-based quantitative proteomic analysis. The acquired data were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, and a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to screen potential markers. The selected proteins were further verified through ELISAs. The differences between control and sepsis groups and between survivors and non-survivors were analysed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to explore their diagnostic value and prognostic efficacy.

Results: A total of 149 DEPs were identified by bioinformatics methods. The analyses showed that these proteins are mainly involved in biological processes such as cell movement, stress response, cell proliferation, and immune response. Functional pathway analysis showed that they are mainly involved in leukocyte transendothelial migration, protein synthesis and processing, and various bacterial infections. LGALS3BP was selected as a potential plasma biomarker and further verified through an ELISA. Its level in septic patients was significantly higher than that in normal controls, and its level in non-survivors was also higher than that in survivors. The ROC curves suggested its great diagnostic efficacy and prognostic ability in sepsis.

Conclusion: LGALS3BP levels were significantly different between the normal and sepsis groups; it has good diagnostic value in sepsis, and is related to patient prognosis; thus, it might be a biomarker for sepsis.