Proteomic Analysis of Differentially Expressed Proteins in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis-Infected Macrophages

Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and Mycobacterium avium (MA) are intracellular parasitic bacteria. The biological characteristics of MA and MTB are very similar and need to be identified. Objective: The study aims to better understand how MTB survives in macrophages and the different pathogenic mechanisms of MTB and MA. Methods: The Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/ MS) were used for analysis of the differentially expressed proteins in MTB-infected macrophages and MA-infected macrophages. Results: A total of 682 proteins were found to be differentially expressed in MTB-infected cells in comparison with MA-infected cells. Among these, 10 proteins (O60812, P06576, O43660-2, E9PL10, O00442, M0R050, Q9H8H0, Q9BSJ8, P41240 and Q8TD57-3) were down-regulated in MTB-infected cells, and M0R050, O00442, Q9H8H0, O60812 and O43660 are interactive proteins which participate in a multitude of cellular RNA processing. Conclusion: The five down-regulated proteins (M0R050, O00442, Q9H8H0, O60812 and O43660) might repress the synthesis of some resistant proteins in MTB-infected cells to promote MTB survival in macrophages.