Serum proteomic profile of wild stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides) infected with malaria parasites in Thailand

Abstract

The number of patients infected with simian malaria is gradually increasing in many countries of Southeast Asia and South America. The most important risk factor for a zoonotic spillover event of malarial infection is mostly influenced by the interaction between humans monkeys and vectors. In this study we determine the protein expression profile of a wild stump-tailed macaque (Macaca arctoides) from a total of 32 blood samples collected from Prachuap Kiri Khan Province Thailand. The malarial parasite was analyzed using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays by dividing the samples into three groups: non-infected mono-infected and multiple-infected. The identification and differential proteomic expression profiles were determined using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and bioinformatics tools. A total of 9 532 proteins (total proteins) were identified with the filter-based selection methods analysis and a subset of 440 proteins were found to be different between each group. Within these proteins the GhostKOALA functional enrichment analysis indicated that 142 important proteins were associated with either of the organismal system (28.87%) genetic information processing (23.24%) environmental information processing (16.20%) metabolism (13.38%) cellular processes (11.97%) or causing human disease (6.34%). Additionally using interaction network analysis nine potential reporter proteins were identified. Here we report the first study on the protein profiles differentially expressed in the serum of wild stump-tailed macaques between non mono and multiple malarial infected living in a natural transmission environment. Our findings demonstrate that differentially expressed proteins implicated in host defense through lipid metabolism involved with TGF pathway were suppressed while those with the apoptosis pathway such as cytokines and proinflammation signals were increased. Including the parasite抯 response via induced hemolysis and disruption of myeloid cells. A greater understanding of the fundamental processes involved in a malarial infection and host response can be crucial for developing diagnostic tools medication development and therapies to improve the health of those affected by the disease. Copyright: ? 2023 Ruengket et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author and source are credited.