Burkholderia Cenocepacia MALDI-ToF Mass Spectra in the Assessing the Course of Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

A microbial identification method using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF) is an innovative dimension in proteomic analysis. MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry allows not only determine the species and subspecies bacteria, but also determined by proteomic analysis and the corresponding software degree of kinship analyzed strains, which allows this method to be used in epidemiological studies and in comparing strains isolated from patients with chronic infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of using protein spectra of microorganisms obtained by MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry as additional microbiological criteria in assessing the course of the infection process caused by Burkholderia cepacia complex among patients with cystic fibrosis. The analysis of protein profiles, which were obtained by using MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry (Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Germany), was performed by using flexAnalisis 3.0 software (Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Germany). Differences in protein profiles of Burkholderia spp. isolates were found depended on the stage of infection of a cystic fibrosis patient with prolonged colonisation of the lower respiratory tract. The protein profiles of Burkholderia spp. isolates that formed a heterogeneous population containing both NCV and SCV morphotypes were also studied. A regular dynamic monitoring and comparison of protein profiles of microbial strains can be useful in forecasting effort of the clinical course of the disease, as well as in assessing of risks of severe infectious complications development.