Circulating Lipids and Acute Pain Sensitization

Abstract

Background In individuals with low back pain, higher lipid levels have been documented and were associated with increased risk for chronic low back pain. Objectives The purpose of this research was to identify plasma lipids that discriminate participants with acute low back pain with or without pain sensitization as measured by quantitative sensory testing. Methods This exploratory study was conducted as part of a larger parent randomized controlled trial. A cluster analysis of 30 participants with acute low back pain revealed two clusters: one with signs of peripheral and central sensitivity to mechanical and thermal stimuli and the other with an absence of peripheral and central sensitivity. Lipid levels were extracted from plasma and measured using mass spectroscopy. Results TAG 50:2 was significantly higher in participants with peripheral and central sensitization compared to the nonsensitized cluster. The nonsensitized cluster had significantly higher levels of PG 34:2, plasmenyl-PC 38:1, and PA 28:1 compared to participants with peripheral and central sensitization. Linear discriminant function analysis was conducted using the four statistically significant lipids to test their predictive power to classify those in the sensitization and no sensitization clusters; the four lipids accurately predicted cluster classification 58% of the time (R2 = .58 (−2 log likelihood = 14.59). Discussion The results of this exploratory study suggest a unique lipidomic signature in plasma of patients with acute low back pain based on the presence or absence of pain sensitization. Future work to replicate these preliminary findings is underway.

Metabolomics Research Conducted by Nurse Scientists: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…We have summarized the key characteristics of the studies in Table 1. Of these studies, nine (30%) listed nurses as first authors (Cybulska et al, 2019; Downs et al, 2018; Ferranti et al, 2017; Gregory et al, 2013; Heitkemper et al, 2016; Lyon et al, 2018; Menzies et al, 2020; Starkweather et al, 2017; Thompson et al, 2019). Additionally, one research abstract (3.3%) listed nurse authors as both first and senior author (Faucher et al, 2019), and one study (3.3%) included a nurse as senior, but not first, author (Chen et al, 2019).…”

“…The reviewed studies used metabolomic methods to investigate a wide array of clinical conditions, including cystic fibrosis (Alvarez et al, 2017; Alvarez, Frediani, et al, 2014; Alvarez, Smith, et al, 2014), heart failure (Cheng et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2018b, 2019), coronary artery disease (Shah et al, 2010), postmenopause with hormone replacement therapy (Cybulska et al, 2019; Oh et al, 2017), obese pregnant women (Faucher et al, 2019), hypertension in pregnancy (Ferranti et al, 2017), premature neonates (Gregory et al, 2013), irritable bowel syndrome (Heitkemper et al, 2016; Hollister et al, 2019), Type II diabetes mellitus (Irving et al, 2015), breast cancer (Lyon et al, 2018; Sun et al, 2018), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (Mayers et al, 2014), fibromyalgia (Menzies et al, 2020), acute low-back pain (Starkweather et al, 2017), cognitive impairment (Mapstone et al, 2017), and mild traumatic brain injury (Thompson et al, 2019). Among the 11 studies (36.6%) with nurse scientists as first and/or senior authors, four focused on women’s health including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes (Faucher et al, 2019; Ferranti et al, 2017), hormone replacement therapy in menopause (Cybulska et al, 2019), and breast cancer (Lyon et al, 2018).…”

“…Two papers (6.7%) were published in oncology journals (Oh et al, 2017; Sun et al, 2018). Only three papers (10%) were published in nursing journals, two in Biological Research for Nursing (Heitkemper et al, 2016; Lyon et al, 2018) and one in Nursing Research (Starkweather et al, 2017). Of note, all of the publications in nursing journals included first authored nurse scientist publications.…”

“…In studies involving human subjects ( n = 26, including Mayers et al), metabolomics analyses were predominantly performed on whole blood or blood components. Among these, over half ( n = 16, 53%) used human plasma (Alvarez et al, 2017; Alvarez, Frediani, et al, 2014; Alvarez, Smith, et al, 2014; Cheng et al, 2015; Irving et al, 2015; Mapstone et al, 2017; Mayers et al, 2014; Menzies et al, 2020; Shah et al, 2010; Starkweather et al, 2017; Thompson et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2018b, 2019). An additional seven (25.9%) of the studies involving human subjects used serum (Ferranti et al, 2017; Heitkemper et al, 2016; Lu et al, 2016; Lyon et al, 2018; Oh et al, 2017) or whole blood (Cybulska et al, 2019; Sun et al, 2018).…”

“…Almost half ( n = 14; 46.7%) of the studies included solely targeted metabolomics investigations (Cybulska et al, 2019; Downs et al, 2018; Faucher et al, 2019; Heitkemper et al, 2016; Irving et al, 2015; Mapstone et al, 2017; Mayers et al, 2014; Oh et al, 2017; Shah et al, 2010; Wang et al, 2016, 2017, 2018a, 2018b, 2019), two studies (6.6%) used both untargeted and targeted methods (Cheng et al, 2015; Lyon et al, 2018), and the remaining 14 (46.7%) involving untargeted metabolomics (Alvarez et al, 2017; Alvarez, Frediani, et al, 2014; Alvarez, Smith, et al, 2014; Bird et al, 2013; Chen et al, 2018, 2019; Ferranti et al, 2017; Gregory et al, 2013; Hollister et al, 2019; Lu et al, 2016; Menzies et al, 2020; Starkweather et al, 2017; Sun et al, 2018; Thompson et al, 2019). In seven studies (23.3%), investigators used lipidomics methods to target the amount and identity of lipids within samples (Bird et al, 2013; Downs et al, 2018; Gregory et al, 2013; Mapstone et al, 2017; Menzies et al, 2020; Starkweather et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2018b). In 27% of the studies ( n = 8) researchers additionally performed pathway analysis whereby, not only the individual metabolites, but also the larger biologic networks are measured within samples (Alvarez et al, 2017; Chen et al, 2018, 2019; Ferranti et al, 2017; Gregory et al, 2013; Hollister et al, 2019; Lu et al, 2016; Lyon et al, 2018).…”