Bicocca Bioinformatics Biostatistics and Bioimaging B4 Center, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano - Bicocca, Monza, Italy.
Proteomics and Metabolomics, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Vedano al Lambro, Italy.
Biochim Biophys Acta Proteins Proteom. 2020 Nov;1868(11):140481. doi: 10.1016/j.bbapap.2020.140481. Epub 2020 Jul 6.
Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI)-Mass Spectrometry imaging (MSI) has been applied in various diseases aimed to biomarkers discovery. In this study diagnosis and prognosis of Hashimoto Thyroiditis (HT) in cytopathology by MALDI-MSI has been investigated. Specimens from a routine series of subjects who underwent UltraSound-guided thyroid Fine Needle Aspirations (FNAs) were used. The molecular classifier trained in a previous study was modified to include HT as a separate entity in the group of benign lesions, in the diagnostic proteomic triage of thyroid nodules. The statistical analysis confirmed the existence of signals that HT shares with hyperplastic lesions and others that are specific and characterize this subgroup. Statistically relevant HT-related peaks were included in the model. Then, the discriminatory capability of the classifier was tested in a second validation phase, showing a good agreement with cytological diagnoses. The possibility to overlap the molecular signatures of both the lymphocytes and epithelial cells components (ROIs or pixel-by-pixel analysis) confirmed the composite proteomic background of HT. These results open the way to their possible translation as alternative serum biomarkers of this autoimmune condition.
基质辅助激光解吸/电离（MALDI）-质谱成像（MSI）已应用于各种疾病的生物标志物发现。本研究旨在探讨 MALDI-MSI 在细胞病理学中对桥本甲状腺炎（HT）的诊断和预后价值。使用了超声引导下甲状腺细针抽吸（FNA）的常规系列受试者的标本。在之前的研究中训练的分子分类器被修改为在甲状腺结节的诊断蛋白质组学分诊中，将 HT 作为良性病变组中的单独实体。统计分析证实了 HT 与增生性病变以及其他特异性和特征性病变的信号的存在。统计上相关的 HT 相关峰被纳入模型。然后，在第二验证阶段测试了分类器的判别能力，结果与细胞学诊断具有良好的一致性。重叠淋巴细胞和上皮细胞成分（ROI 或逐像素分析）的分子特征的可能性证实了 HT 的复合蛋白质组学背景。这些结果为将其作为自身免疫性疾病的替代血清生物标志物进行转化开辟了道路。
