Preeclampsia is a dangerous pregnancy complication that results in 50,000 maternal deaths every year. Timely, accurate diagnosis is absolutely essential and can be challenging, even in the most experienced of hands. Getting this diagnosis right is of paramount importance, in order to plan delivery. Accurate diagnosis is particularly relevant in non-tertiary units, because it is crucial that preeclampsia cases are reliably and quickly identified. This can facilitate referral to specialized tertiary centres, where maternal and fetal morbidity can be prevented through early intervention before severe complications have occurred. Currently, preeclampsia is diagnosed on clinical grounds and, despite the enormous risks, clinical criteria for diagnosis/severity correlate poorly with maternal-fetal outcome. There is an urgent, unmet need to develop accurate diagnostic tools in this dangerous condition.
The UCD Conway SPHERE team have developed a new, blood-based innovative diagnostics platform; PALADINTM (PlAteLet bAsed DIagNostics); that characterizes the platelet “releasate” (PR; substances released from platelets when activated). We use advanced proteomics methods and state-of-the-art equipment to uncover useful molecular diagnostics for inflammatory disease. PALADINTM addresses the unmet need for an easily accessible, minimally invasive source for specific molecular biomarkers in numerous diseases. Platelets are blood cells that play a key role in blood coagulation, wound healing but also placental development and preeclampsia. During a 3-year, HRB-funded study, we performed detailed characterization of the PR proteome in mothers with early onset preeclampsia and we identified that proteomic signatures appear to have predictive power in the diagnosis of preeclampsia. Now, we aim to validate this approach in collaboration with our team in the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street and in the Rotunda. The PALADINTM platform has the potential to be of great diagnostic relevance to our pregnant mothers and their babies and could save lives and prevent longterm health complications arising as a consequence of preeclampsia.