Serum peptidomics profiling reveals fibrinogen alpha chain-derived peptides associated with clinical outcome in patients with heart failure.

backgroundThere is an urgent need for effective risk prediction tools to assess all-cause mortality in heart failure (HF) patients, and recent serum peptidomics advancements may help identify potential biomarkers associated with HF outcome. We aimed to provide insights into the multiple biological processes and assess the predictive values of serum peptidomics in HF.

methodsWe performed a prospective, nested, case-control study of 108 patients with HF. The serum peptides were measured by mass spectrometry in 27 healthy controls (HC), 27 patients who experienced all-cause death (event group), and 27 patients matched for age and sex who survived (non-event group) during 1-year follow-up. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to identify changes in signaling pathways during the development of HF and screen candidate circulating peptides.

resultsWe identified 1343 and 215 differential expressed peptides in the comparison between HF and HCs group and between the event and non-event group, respectively. Biological pathway analysis showed that the differentially expressed peptides were both mainly enriched in the coagulation and complement and coagulation cascades pathway. In addition, we identified key peptides with potential predictive value for HF outcome, particularly the fibrinogen alpha chain (FIBA)-derived peptides.

conclusionsOur findings suggest that the complement and coagulation pathway was associated with HF outcome. A FIBA-derived serum peptides model can serve as an outcome classifier in patients with HF.