Development of an immunoassay for the derived-peptide of chromogranin A, Vasostatin-I (1-76): assessment of severity in patients with sepsis

Abstract

Context: Proteolytic fragments of chromogranin A (CgA) including the CgA 1-76 fragment (called vasostatin-I [VS-I]) could be a useful biomarker of sepsis, but there is no available immunoassay.

Methods: A sandwich ELISA for VS-I was developed, and plasma VS-I was measured in 30 healthy controls and 60 critically ill patients with sepsis.

Results: The ELISA showed intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variations (CVs) below 4 and 9%. Plasma VS-I was significantly increased compared with controls in patients with sepsis, severe sepsis, and sepsis shock (p < 0.0001). Receiver operating curve (ROC) analyses indicated that plasma VS-I was more sensitive and specific than plasma CgA to diagnose sepsis and to assess its severity.

Conclusions: The measurements of plasma VS-I with this new ELISA may be useful for the clinical investigation of patients with sepsis.

Keywords::

• Biomarker
• chromogranin A
• sepsis
• vasostatin

Acknowledgments

Hélène Chung and Patrick Garnero are employees of Cisbio Bioassays, which produces and commercializes assay for chromogranin A.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by a grant from the French National Research Agency (ANR-08-BIOT-006, involving Cisbio bioassays (Codolet, France), INSERM research unit U977 (Strasbourg, France), and the University Hospital of Strasbourg (Strasbourg, France) as partners. This study was also supported by the Italian Association of Cancer Research (AIRC).