AbstractThere is a gap in research focused on the aging process of the feline species. To this end we were dedicated to address this knowledge gap and its relationship to the impact of aging cats and the role of oxidative stress. Our 95 study samples consisted of two different feline populations: one cohort of Forty two samples (sexually intact, four male and 42 female) aged 1 to 17 y old were obtained from the UC Davis Cat Colony (apparently healthy), and 53 (19 female spayed, one intact male, 33 male neutered) aged three months to 16 years old, were randomly selected and obtained from the UC-Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital (most with a disease) who sought care between December 2022 and January 2023. The final count of 1,037 proteins were subjected to the COMBAT batch correction method to remove variation from the batches. The new COMBAT-corrected dataset was then used to test for four imputation methods to estimate the missing values, resulting in the data obtained to be subdivided into two groups the Cat Colony samples were labeled “apparently healthy” and the VET MED hospital samples were labeled “Diseased” both of which were ran in a JMP Linear Regression Model. This resulted in two linear equations for each of our batches, all which had a P value of <0.05 and prompted us to use a Venn Diagram to compare the “apparently Healthy” and “Diseased” proteins in the four different value estimations. The 28 proteins obtained from “apparently Healthy” cats and the 26 proteins obtained from the “Diseased” cats were analyzed to unveil protein-protein interaction to determine if these proteins (associated with age) were part of a common network. According to the results, we can conclude that there are proteins found in cats’ blood that can be used as potential biomarkers, linking them to aging cats’ brains and the pathways involved in the aging process
