摘要
Background The pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorders remains elusive and currently there are no diagnostic or pre-dictive biomarkers in autism available. Proteomic profiling has been used in a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorder studies, which could produce deeper perceptions of the molecular bases behind certain disease and potentially becomes useful in discovering biomarkers in autism spectrum disorders. Methods Serum samples were collected from autistic children about 3 years old in age (n = 32) and healthy controls (n = 20) in similar age and gender. The samples were identified specific proteins that are diff erentially expressed by magnetic bead-based pre-fractionation and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF-MS). Results Eight protein peaks were significantly different in autistic children from the healthy controls (P < 0.0001). The two peaks with the most significant diff erences were 6428 and 7758 Da in size. Conclusion According to diff erences in serum protein profiles between the autistic children and healthy controls, this study identified a set of diff erentially expressed proteins those are significant for further evaluation and might function as biomark-ers in autism.
