DETECTION OF NEURAL EXTRACELLULAR VESICLE PROTEINS IN BLOOD AS PREDICTIVE EARLY BIOMARKERS OF ENCEPHALOPATHY ASSOCIATED WITH HEMOLYTIC UREMIC SYNDROME (HUS)

ROMINA GLISONE; ANA B. CELI; ANALIA LÓPEZ DÍAZ; NATALIA SZPILBARG

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencia; 2022

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica

Shiga toxin (Stx) producing E. coli (STEC) is the principal etiologic agent causingHUS, characterized by hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia and renal failure.Neurological alterations may occur, and consequently a poor prognosis andincreased mortality rate are recorded. STEC is a gram-negative bacterium, and inaddition to Stx also releases LPS, involved in proinflammatory-related events whichcontributes significantly to the development of the disease. The detection of serumbiomarkers associated with neural injury during the first days of bloody diarrheaonset, and prior to HUS signs and symptoms, could be determinant to startpharmacological strategies to prevent neural damage. The aim of this work was todetermine whether neuronal tau and astrocyte GFAP proteins can be consideredearly serological biomarkers of encephalopathy in the context of HUS. For thispurpose, NIH-Swiss male mice were intravenously injected with vehicle, LPS(800ng), Stx2 (3.5ng, 1LD 100 ) or a combination of Stx2+LPS (same previousamounts). After 1- and 2- days, blood samples were collected to detect tau proteinby Elisa (Invitrogen, Viena, Austria) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) were obtainedfrom plasma by differential centrifugation. These EVs were characterized in identity,quantity and size using western blot, Bradford and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)techniques. One way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests were employed for statisticalanalysis. A significant two-fold increase of tau protein was determined after 2 days inthe Stx2+LPS group (p