Decoding myasthenia gravis: advanced diagnosis with infrared spectroscopy and machine learning.

Journal: Scientific reports
PMID:

Abstract

Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is a rare neurological disease. Although there are intensive efforts, the underlying mechanism of MG still has not been fully elucidated, and early diagnosis is still a question mark. Diagnostic paraclinical tests are also time-consuming, burden patients financially, and sometimes all test results can be negative. Therefore, rapid, cost-effective novel methods are essential for the early accurate diagnosis of MG. Here, we aimed to determine MG-induced spectral biomarkers from blood serum using infrared spectroscopy. Furthermore, infrared spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis methods e.g., principal component analysis (PCA), support vector machine (SVM), discriminant analysis and Neural Network Classifier were used for rapid MG diagnosis. The detailed spectral characterization studies revealed significant increases in lipid peroxidation; saturated lipid, protein, and DNA concentrations; protein phosphorylation; POasym + sym /protein and POsym/lipid ratios; as well as structural changes in protein with a significant decrease in lipid dynamics. All these spectral parameters can be used as biomarkers for MG diagnosis and also in MG therapy. Furthermore, MG was diagnosed with 100% accuracy, sensitivity and specificity values by infrared spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis methods. In conclusion, FTIR spectroscopy coupled with machine learning technology is advancing towards clinical translation as a rapid, low-cost, sensitive novel approach for MG diagnosis.

Authors

  • Feride Severcan
    Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Altinbas University, Istanbul, Türkiye. feride@metu.edu.tr.
  • Ipek Ozyurt
    Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Altinbas University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Ayca Dogan
    Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Altinbas University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Mete Severcan
    Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye.
  • Rafig Gurbanov
    Department of Bioengineering, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, 11230, Bilecik, Turkey; Central Research Laboratory, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, 11230, Bilecik, Turkey. Electronic address: rafiq.qurbanov@gmail.com.
  • Fulya Kucukcankurt
    Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Altinbas University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Birsen Elibol
    Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Irem Tiftikcioglu
    Cigli Training and Research Hospital, Neurology Clinic, Bakircay University, İzmir, Türkiye.
  • Esra Gursoy
    Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Bezmialem Vakif University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Melike Nur Yangin
    Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, Institute of Graduate Studies, Altinbas University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Yasar Zorlu
    Tepecik Educational and Training Hospital, Neurology Department, University of Health Sciences, Izmir, Türkiye.