title: Mid-ATR-FTIR spectroscopic profiling of HIV/AIDS sera for novel systems diagnostics in global health.
abstract: Global health, whether in developed or developing countries, is in need of robust systems diagnostics for major diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, impacting the world populations. Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of serum is a quick and reagent-free methodology with which to analyze metabolic alterations such as those caused by disease or treatment. In this study, Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier-Transform (ATR-FTIR) Spectroscopy was investigated as a means of distinguishing HIV-infected treatment-experienced (HIV(pos) ART(pos), n=39) and HIV-infected-treatment-naïve (HIV(pos) ART(neg), n=16) subjects from uninfected control subjects (n=30). Multivariate pattern recognition techniques, including partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), successfully distinguished sample classes, while univariate approaches identified significant differences (p<0.05) after Benjamini-Hochberg corrections. OPLS-DA discriminated between all groups with sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of >90%. Compared to uninfected controls, HIV(pos) ART(pos) and HIV(pos) ART(neg) subjects displayed significant differences in spectral regions linked to lipids/fatty acids (3010 cm(-1)), carbohydrates (1299 cm(-1); 1498 cm(-1)), glucose (1035 cm(-1)), and proteins (1600 cm(-1); 1652 cm(-1)). These are all molecules shown by conventional biochemical analysis to be affected by HIV/ART interference. The biofluid metabolomics approach applied here successfully differentiated global metabolic profiles of HIV-infected patients and uninfected controls and detected potential biomarkers for development into indicators of host response to treatment and/or disease progression. Our findings therefore contribute to ongoing efforts for capacity-building in global health for robust omics science and systems diagnostics towards major diseases impacting population health.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria , Pretoria, South Africa .
authors.forename: Lungile
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sitole
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Steffens
authors.forename: Tjaart P J
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055442:Metabolome; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers