Proteomic biomarkers of sepsis in elderly patients

A method for treating sepsis development, comprising:

• a) providing;
• i) at least one biological sample derived from an elderly patient suspected of having an intra-abdominal infection;
• ii) at least one peptide isolated from said at least one biological sample, wherein said at least one isolated peptide comprises at least one isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) reporter ion;
• iii) a system comprising a liquid chromatography column and a mass spectrometer;
• iv) a control proteomic pathway expression profile;
• and
• v) a sepsis proteomic pathway expression profile;
• b) contacting said at least one iTRAQ-peptide with said system to create at least one iTRAQ-peptide analysis spectrum;
• c) processing said at least one iTRAQ-peptide analysis spectrum to create a patient proteomic pathway expression profile,
• d) comparing said patient proteomic pathway expression profile to said control proteomic pathway expression profile and said sepsis proteomic pathway expression profile wherein at least one protein pathway of said patient proteomic pathway expression profile has an overexpression ratio when compared with said control proteomic pathway expression profile and does not have an overexpression ratio when compared with said sepsis pathway expression profile;
• and
• e) treating said patient for sepsis development.