Proteomic comparison of two zoonotic infections causing AKI.v.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Proteomic comparison of acute kidney injury due to Hantavirus infection and acute kidney injury due to leptospirosis
IRAS ID
201621
Contact name
Sarah Bar-Yaacov
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
The first emergence of Hantaviruses in the UK was described as part of a collaboration between Public Health England (PHE) and the University of Liverpool in 2012 and since then the number of recognized cases has increased. Some of these have resulted in hospitalization with acute kidney injury (AKI), a common complication of severe HFRS. The aim of this study is to examine if it is possible to differentiate at the serum protein level between patients who have suffered AKI due to an hantavirus infection from patients hospitalised with AKI due to leptospirosis infection, which is the main differential diagnosis for hantavirus infections. This will be done by determining and directly comparing the relative abundance of measurable proteins in serum samples from the two study groups caused by the effect of the infection on the patient. Identification of differences in patient serum protein profiles could potentially have diagnostic value in a clinical setting as these diseases display common symptoms and both are contracted from exposure to rats. Serum samples from confirmed acute hantavirus and leptospirosa infections will be retrospectively obtained from the Rare and Imported Pathogens Lab (RIPL),PHE from residual clinical samples submitted for primary clinical diagnostics for these two infections. Protein expression and relative abundance will be determined using mass spectrometry, a method that can simultaneously identify and quantify proteins in biological samples. Selected proteins of interest will consequently be further validated by immunoblotting, a targeted method that specifically confirms the presence of an individual protein in a sample, and can give an indication of relative abundance of said protein.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0074
Date of REC Opinion
23 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion