The Exploration of Peptide Biomarkers in Malignant Pleural Effusion of Lung Cancer Using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Background. Diagnoses of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) are a crucial problem in clinics. In our study, we compared the peptide profiles of MPE and tuberculosis pleural effusion (TPE) to investigate the value of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) in diagnosis of MPE. Material and Methods. The 46 MPE and 32 TPE were randomly assigned to training set and validation set. Peptides were isolated by weak cation exchange magnetic beads and peaks in the m/z range of 800–10000 Da were analyzed. Comparing the peptide profile between 30 MPE and 22 TPE samples in training set by ClinProTools software, we screened the specific biomarkers and established a MALDI-TOF-MS classification of MPE. Finally, the other 16 MPE and 10 TPE were included to verify the model. We additionally determined carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in MPE and TPE samples using electrochemiluminescent immunoassay method. Results. Five peptide peaks (917.37 Da, 4469.39 Da, 1466.5 Da, 4585.21 Da, and 3216.87 Da) were selected to separate MPE and TPE by MALDI-TOF-MS. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the classification were 93.75%, 100%, and 96.15%, respectively, after blinded test. The sensitivity of CEA was significantly lower than MALDI-TOF-MS classification (P = 0.035). Conclusions. The results indicate MALDI-TOF-MS is a potential method for diagnosing MPE.