TITLE:
Accurate preterm labor diagnosis using a CD55-TLR4 combination biomarker model
AUTHORS:
Siddharth Pratap, Laura E. Brown, Michael G. Izban, Stella Nowicki, Bogdan J. Nowicki
KEYWORDS:
Preterm Labor (PTL); CD55; Decay Accelerating Factor (DAF); Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4)
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.6 No.3,
March
12,
2013
ABSTRACT: We previously demonstrated immune
activation in the maternal peripheral circulation associated with preterm labor
(PTL). There was an elevation in WBC mRNA of anti-inflammatory complement decay-accelerating factor (CD55) and the innate-immune response activating toll-like
receptor 4 (TLR4). These findings suggested that collectively, these two molecules
might serve as useful biomolecules to aid in the diagnosis of PTL. In this
study, we used a combined marker approach to determine whether a dual marker
model utilizing both CD55 and TLR4 mRNA levels to classify PTL would increase
diagnostic accuracy compared to either molecule alone. Two methods were
evaluated; a linear discriminant (LD) method and a distribution free (DF)
method, in order to find the optimal linear combination of TLR4 and CD55 data
to diagnose PTL accurately. Our results indicated that a combined CD55-TLR4
dual marker model could provide statistically significant improve- ments
compared to CD55 or TLR4 single marker models for PTL classification
performance.