Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 53 2 2024 01 30 376 386 Haiyan Zhang Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Quan Qiu Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Qingya Li Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Long Feng Department of Pathogenic Organism Biology, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Dongyang Li Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Miao Zhang Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Juan Wang Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Suna Ma Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China Liran Xu Zhongjing Institute of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou city, Henan Province, China 2023 07 03 2023 11 01 Background: We aimed to distinguish the different Chinese medicine (CM) syndromes of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients at the proteomics level. Methods: We collected AIDS patients diagnosed with different CM syndromes from Weishi County, Kaifeng City, Henan Province, China, including Qi-deficiency syndrome (named QD group) and dampness-heat syndrome (named DH group). Healthy people were collected as controls from Weishi County, Kaifeng city, Henan Province, China. The plasma from three groups were labeled with ITRAQ, LC/MC was used for protein quantitative analysis. Finally, sequence search and cluster analysis were performed. Results: Overall, 27 different proteins were found. Three proteins were up-regulated and 2 proteins down-regulated in the QD group, 11 proteins up-regulated and 13 proteins down-regulated in the DH group. Compared with DH group, there were 7 different proteins in QD group, among which 5 proteins were down-regulated and 2 proteins were up-regulated. When the target protein of DH group was up-regulated, the protein of HC group was down-regulated correspondingly. Conclusion: The significance analysis and clustering of protein results showed that DH group was significantly different from QD group and HC group at the protein level (P<0.05). However, the QD group could not be effectively distinguished from the HC group. AAT, PF4, C-reactive protein and c4bp may be used as potential biomarkers in DH group. Mass spectrometry based on feature selection can be used to classify different CM syndromes. https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/32542 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/32542/8163