Changes of urinary proteins in infectious disease models

Abstract

Unlike cerebrospinal fluid or blood, urine accumulates metabolic changes of the body and has the potential to be a promising source of early biomarkers discovery. In this chapter, different models were established to mimic the pathophysiological status of infectious diseases, which contributed to explore the significance of urine in biomarkers discovery of infectious diseases. Rat injected with Escherichia coli was used to mimic meningitis, and mouse infected with Plasmodium yoelii was used to mimic malaria. Some urinary proteins were significantly increased after injection, and most differential proteins were related to inflammation. In another study, several urinary proteins were insignificantly increased in tuberculosis patients’ urine, what’s more mycobacterial proteins were observed. These important studies laid the foundation to further explore biomarkers of infectious diseases.