UNSUPERVISED CLUSTERING ANALYSIS OF THE SERUM PROTEOME IDENTIFIES SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS PATIENTS WITH DISTINCTIVE DISEASE SEVERITY AND LUPUS NEPHROPATHY

Abstract

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a remarkably heterogeneous autoimmune disease. Despite great efforts, our knowledge of serum protein patterns in severe SLE phenotypes is still limited. Objectives: This study investigated the serum proteomic profile of SLE, in order to identify relevant clinical patterns. Methods: Proximity extension immunoassay (PEA, Olink) was used to assess the serum levels of one hundred and eighty-four inflammation and organ damage-related proteins in patients with SLE (n = 72) and agematched healthy donors (HD) (n = 18). In parallel, an extensive clinical and analytical profile of recruited subjects was performed. To evaluate the contribution of molecular profiles to the disease severity, unsupervised clustering analyses were developed.