Serum proteins and faecal microbiota as potential biomarkers in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome patients

Matijašić, Mario; Barešić, Anja; Čipčić Paljetak, Hana; Perić, Mihaela; Panek, Marina; Kunović, Ana; Ljubas Kelečić, Dina; Vranešić Bender, Darija; Grubelić Ravić, Katja; Rogić, Dunja; Antolic, Margareta; Horvat, Ivana; Kraljević, Ivana; Banić, Marko; Krznarić, Željko; Verbanac, Donatella (2025) Serum proteins and faecal microbiota as potential biomarkers in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome patients. Journal of Molecular Medicine, 103 (8). pp. 963-974. ISSN 0946-2716

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Abstract

Molecular biomarkers are valuable tools to predict the disease and determine its course. Several markers have been associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); however, none is sufficiently reliable to enable accurate diagnosis. We characterized a broad panel of serum proteins to assess disease-specific biomarker profiles and associate these findings with faecal microbiota composition in newly diagnosed IBD and IBS patients and healthy individuals. The study cohort consisted of 49 newly diagnosed treatment-naive adult patients (13 Crohn's disease (CD), 13 ulcerative colitis (UC), and 23 IBS) and 12 healthy individuals. Inflammatory and metabolism-related serum proteins were assessed using PEA multiplex panels, while gut microbiota composition was determined by 16 s rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Serum proteins AXIN1, TNFSF14, RNASE3, EN-RAGE, OSM, ST1A1, CA13 and NADK were identified as markers with the most promising specificity/sensitivity and predictivity between healthy and disease groups, while IL-17A and TNFRSF9 enabled differentiation between IBD and IBS patients. Increased abundance of Enterobacteriaceae was associated with protein markers significantly elevated in IBD/IBS. In contrast, depletion of beneficial taxa like Ruminococcaceae and Verucomicrobiaceae (i.e. Akkermansia muciniphila) was associated with decrease of a set of markers in diseased groups. Differences in the abundance of Turicibacteriaceae were more predictive to discern CD from UC than any of the serum proteins investigated. By using a broad panel of inflammation and metabolism-related proteins, we determined serum markers with significantly different levels in treatment-naive IBD and IBS patients compared to healthy individuals, as well as between IBD and IBS.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Inflammatory bowel disease; Crohn's disease; Ulcerative colitis; Irritable bowel syndrome; Serum biomarkers; Faecal microbiota; Treatment-naive patients
Subjects:	BIOMEDICINE AND HEALTHCARE
Divisions:	Division of Electronics
Projects:	Project title Project leader Project code Project type Utvrđivanje sastava crijevne mikrobiote, upalnih markera, prehrambenog i endokrinog statusa u pacijenata s upalnom bolesti crijeva-MINUTE for IBD Donatella Verbanac IP-2013-11-5467 HRZZ
Depositing User:	Ana Zečević
Date Deposited:	09 Apr 2026 09:27
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/11633
DOI:	10.1007/s00109-025-02558-5

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