Specificity of mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) in the diagnosis of Babesia canis regarding to other canine vector-borne diseases.

UNLABELLED: The canine vector-borne diseases (CVBD) is a term, which describes a range of infectious or/and parasitic diseases whose etiological agents are transmitted by vectors. CVBD are becoming more widely in the world in relation to global warming and the increasing number of infected vectors. The aim of this study was to assess rapid mass spectrometry (MS) - based proteomics analyses for diagnosis of Babesia canis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi infections in dogs. The study was conducted on four groups of dogs - healthy dogs (group 1, n=10) and dogs infected with B. canis (group 2, n=20), A. phagocytophilum (group 3, n=20) and B. burgdorferi (group 4, n=20) which demonstrated symptoms of the diseases. The MALDI-TOF (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization with Time of Flight detector) MS technique revealed the presence of specific protein fraction of 51-52 kDa only in the blood serum of all the animals infected with the B. canis protozoa. The proteins are suspected to be disease markers, whereas the MALDI-TOF technique itself has high specificity and sensitivity and can be applied in the diagnosis of canine babesiosis.

KEY WORDS: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia canis, Borrelia burgdorferi, MALDI-TOF, proteomics.