Conover, Katie, MD

Travel Award
$1,500

University of Colorado

Large-scale Proteomic Study Reveals a Novel Accurate Diagnostic Biomarker in Gestational Alloimmune Liver Disease

Mentor: Sarah Taylor, MD

Gestational Alloimmune Liver Disease (GALD) is the cause of most cases of neonatal liver failure. Newborns present with typical signs of liver failure including easy bleeding, inability to maintain normal blood sugars, and body swelling. This can progress to multi-organ failure and death. Diagnosing GALD is challenging because symptoms overlap with more common diseases that present in newborns like sepsis. Diagnostic studies that can more specifically identify GALD require specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies and examining tissue samples under the microscope. Thus, a more accessible and logistically feasible diagnostic test could greatly improve timely and accurate diagnosis of GALD. Diagnosis is imperative, because babies can be treated with intravenous medications that greatly reduce mortality from this disease. Further, this disease recurs in almost all of the mother’s future pregnancies, but recurrence drops dramatically if mom is treated with medications starting during the second trimester of her future pregnancies.

In this study, we identify proteins that are increased and decreased in GALD compared to other causes of neonatal liver failure such as infection and metabolic diseases. We found several upregulated proteins in GALD that support our current understanding of the mechanism of this disease. Two proteins in particular were able to distinguish between GALD and non-GALD causes of neonatal liver failure with high accuracy. These findings will lead to further studies looking at these proteins in a prospective manner to validate their accuracy and influence our current diagnostic approach in GALD.