In HIV-1/HCV co-infected sample, the cytoskeletal proteins gelsolin (spot 2), tropomyosin alpha-4 chain (spot 3), and profilin-1 (spot 4) were up-regulated by 3.7-, 2.17- and 2.54-fold, respectively.
Tubulin alpha-1A chain (spot 17) was expressed in a significantly greater concentration in the foetal fibroblasts, such that the ratio HAF : HFF was 1 : 1.92 ± 0.04 (Table 1).
These are involved in glycolysis (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, spot 187), photosynthesis or photorespiration (ribulose 1-5 biphosphate carboxylase large chain, spot 39), and anaerobic fermentation (alcohol dehydrogenase, spot 40 in Figure 4).
A similar trend was also observed for enzymes of the photorespiration system, such as the RuBisCO activase (spots 17, 20, 21 and 59), RuBisCO decarboxylase small chain (spot 86), aminomethyltransferase (spot 26 and 27) and glycine/serine hydroxymethyltransferase (spot 11 and 13).
The spots were identified as apolipoprotein A-IV (spots 563,565 and 572), plasminogen (spot 201), serum amyloid A (spot 726) and fibrinogen gamma chain (spots 475 and 490).
Our results show that under our experimental conditions, the α2 chain (spots 11, 12, 13) is similarly expressed in the plasma of both experimental groups, but α1 chain (spots 21, 22, 23) is only expressed in the patients plasma samples but not in the healthy controls.
Here, expression of ATP synthase β-chain, spot 507, increased at RIPE (9.99-fold), spot 419 transiently increased at NTR (2.78-fold), while spot 312 decreased at NTR (−2.28-fold) and RIPE (−1.65-fold, Supplementary File 2).
Increases in phosphoglycerate kinase and phosphoglycerate mutase suggest enhanced energy production, particularly since this correlated with the upregulation of ATP synthase β-chain (spot 312, 419 and 507) of the ATP biosynthesis pathway.
Of the proteins identified in this category, actin (spot 317), fibrillin (spot 3 and 53), plastid-lipid associated protein 3 (spot 19) and tubulin β-chain (spot 356) showed contrasting differential accumulation in dates compared to other fruits such as grapes (Table 2 and Supplementary File 2).
On the other hand, myosin regulatory light chain 2 (spot 1 ), galectin-1 (spot 3), lipid-binding AI (spot 4), annexin V (spot 5), transthyretin (spot 6), CARD-inhibitor of NF-κB-activating ligand (spot 8), actin prepeptide (spot 9), and macrophage-capping protein (spot 11) were downregulated in bladder tissues from NMIBC and MIBC samples compared with controls.
Both IgG chains (spots H05, H06, and H15) and serum albumin (H16 and H17) were detected as being differentially upregulated between HbH samples and normal controls, but, as these were specifically depleted from the samples prior to 2D electrophoresis, the result is of unclear significance.
