An exploratory study of urinary proteome in trigeminal neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a neurological disorder characterized by severe pain, with a complex pathogenesis that seriously affects the quality of life of patients. Urinary proteomics has shown great potential in disease research. The aim of this study is to explore the diagnostic and therapeutic value of urine proteomics in TN. The urine of 10 cases of TN and 11 healthy individuals were studied using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) proteomics technology. Group analysis and one to many individual analysis strategies were used in quantitative analysis. A total of 2620 proteins were identified in group analysis, of which 1865 were quantifiable proteins. The majority of specimens in each group could be distinguished by unsupervised clustering analysis of urine proteome. The biological processes of immune response regulation signal pathway, immune response, natural killer cell activation, fatty acid transport, and natural killer cell inhibition signal pathway, as well as the KEGG pathway of antigen processing and presentation and natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity, were significantly enriched in the comparison between the two populations. An individual analysis revealed that there were more significantly different proteins among individuals, with 15 proteins identified in at least 9 different patients. The urinary proteome provided molecular characteristics of urinary proteins for patients with TN, describing the changes that occur in the patients body. The strong enrichment of its immune response might be related to the onset of the disease, providing new directions for immune related treatment of the disease; the significant differential proteins could become potential disease markers for disease diagnosis and treatment evaluation.