Metabolomics, peptidomics and glycoproteomics studies on human schistosomiasis mansoni

Abstract

The application of dedicated mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technologies for biomarker discovery and diagnostic purposes has increased substantially in the last decade. In the studies presented in this thesis, we have used these technologies to identify parasite or host-derived products (biomarkers) related to infection and morbidity associated with schistosomiasis and to better understand the host-parasite interaction. The application of our peptidomics and metabonomics studies on schistosomiasis have provided some novel, valuable information but they are obviously only the first step. In addition to the potential biomarkers identified with the global biomarker discovery approaches, we showed in this thesis that a more targeted approach, looking at glycosylation, also resulted in novel information on S. mansoni infection. We have identified and characterized a set of human Apolipoprotein C-III peptides aberrantly glycosylated at the O-glycosylation site (Thr74), in urine of S. mansoni- infected individuals. The presented study is the first in which MS and NMR were used for the analysis of a cohort of human S. mansoni-infected individuals. This has resulted in the identification of a number of novel markers. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to evaluate the overall applicability of these putative biomarkers