Quantitative Serum Proteomic Analysis of Essential Hypertension Using iTRAQ Technique

Essential hypertension (EH) is a risk factor for some severe diseases. This study aimed to screen out serum special proteins and seek interaction between them, which would provide new therapeutic targets and elucidate the comprehensive pathophysiological mechanism for EH. Patients with EH (Group A, n = 47) and healthy controls (HC) (Group B, n = 47) were recruited in this study. Serums from the two groups were analyzed with isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation coupled two-dimensional liquid chromatography followed by electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry technique, while the candidate special proteins were verified with ELISA and western blot. A total of 404 proteins were identified, of which 30 proteins were upregulated (>1.2-fold, p < 0.05) and 81 proteins were downregulated (<0.833-fold, p < 0.05) compared with HC group. With GO, KEGG analysis, and literature retrieval, 4 proteins, cathepsin G, transforming growth factor beta-1, hyaluronidase-1, and kininogen-1, were found jointly involved in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and kallikrein-kinin system. The profiles of these 4 candidate proteins were confirmed with ELISA and western blot. The concentration variation of these 4 proteins could better predict the occurrence and illustrate the pathophysiological mechanism of EH. And their discovery may help pave the way for exploring new therapies of EH.