Abstract
Preeclampsia (PE) is a hypertensive pregnancy syndrome associated with target organ damage and increased cardiovascular risks, necessitating antihypertensive therapy. However, approximately 40% of patients are nonresponsive to treatment, which results in worse clinical outcomes. This study aimed to compare circulating proteomic profiles and identify differentially expressed proteins among 10 responsive (R-PE), 10 nonresponsive (NR-PE) patients, and 10 healthy pregnant controls (HP). We also explored correlations between these proteins and clinical data. Plasma protein relative quantification was performed using mass spectrometry, followed by bioinformatics analyses with the UniProt database, PatternLab for Proteomics 4.0, and MetaboAnalyst software (version 6.0). Considering a fold change of 1.5, four proteins were differentially expressed between NR-PE and R-PE: one upregulated (fibronectin) and three downregulated (pregnancy-specific beta-1-glycoprotein 1, complement C4B, and complement C4A). Between NR-PE and HP, six proteins were differentially expressed: two upregulated (clusterin and plasmin heavy chain A) and four downregulated (apolipoprotein L1, heparin cofactor II, complement C4B, and haptoglobin-related protein). Three proteins were differentially expressed between R-PE and HP: one downregulated (transthyretin) and two upregulated (apolipoprotein C1 and hemoglobin subunit beta). These findings suggest a complex interplay of these proteins involved in inflammatory, immune, and metabolic processes with antihypertensive therapy responsiveness and PE pathophysiology.
Keywords:
antihypertensive therapy responsiveness; complement C4A; complement C4B; fibronectin; preeclampsia; pregnancy-specific beta-1-glycoprotein 1; proteomics.