Urinary proteome profiling for children with autism using data-independent acquisition proteomics

BACKGROUND: Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder. Objective and reliable biomarkers are crucial for the clinical diagnosis of autism. Urine can accumulate early changes of the whole body and is a sensitive source for disease biomarkers. METHODS: The data-independent acquisition (DIA) strategy was used to identify differential proteins in the urinary proteome between autistic and non-autistic children aged 3–7 years. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were developed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of differential proteins. RESULTS: A total of 118 differential proteins were identified in the urine between autistic and non-autistic children, of which 18 proteins were reported to be related to autism. Randomized grouping statistical analysis indicated that 91.5% of the differential proteins were reliable. Functional analysis revealed that some differential proteins were associated with axonal guidance signaling, endocannabinoid developing neuron pathway, synaptic long-term depression, agrin interactions at neuromuscular junction, phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) signaling and synaptogenesis signaling pathway. The combination of cadherin-related family member 5 (CDHR5) and vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 4B (VPS4B) showed the best discriminative performance between autistic and non-autistic children with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.987. CONCLUSIONS: The urinary proteome could distinguish between autistic children and non-autistic children. This study will provide a promising approach for future biomarker research of neuropsychiatric disorders.