Novel Strategy for Rapidly and Safely Distinguishing Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus cereus by Use of Peptide Mass Fingerprints Based on MALDI-TOF MS.

To construct a rapid, high-throughput and biosafety-compatible screening method for and based on matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). MALDI-TOF MS coupled to ClinProTools was used to discover MALDI-TOF MS biomarker peaks and to generate a classification model based on a genetic algorithm (GA) to differentiate between different and isolates. Thirty and 19 strains were used to construct and analyze the model, and 40 strains were used for validation. For the GA screening model, the cross-validation values, which reflect the ability of the model to handle variability among the test spectra, and the recognition capability values, which reflect the model's ability to correctly identify its component spectra, were all 100%. This model contained 10 biomarker peaks (m/z 3339.9, 3396.3, 3682.4, 5476.7, 6610.6, 6680.1, 7365.3, 7792.4, 9475.8 and 10934.1) used to correctly identify 28 and 12 from 40 isolates, with a sensitivity and specificity of 100%. With the obvious advantages of being rapid, highly accurate, and highly sensitive and having a low cost and high throughput, MALDI-TOF MS ClinProTools is a powerful and reliable tool for screening and strains.