Global Metabolic Profiling for The Study of Alcohol-Related Disorders

Abstract

Alcohol-related disorders are multifaceted since ethanol can induce profound metabolic perturbations when taken in excess. Global metabolic profiling strategies may aid the understanding of ethanol-related effects by shedding light on these metabolic changes and potentially revealing unknown mechanisms of ethanol toxicity. Here an overview of studies designed to explore the effects of alcohol (ethanol) consumption using holistic metabolite profiling approaches (metabonomics/metabolomics) is presented, demonstrating the potential of this methodology. The analytical technologies used (NMR, GC-MS and LC-MS), have been applied to the profiling of serum, plasma, urine and tissues, obtained from animal models or humans, after exposure to alcohol. From the metabolic profiling data of a range of biological samples, a number of endogenous metabolites have been proposed as potential ethanol consumption-related biomarkers. The biomarkers suggested by these studies, and the biochemical insights that they provide for understanding the effects of ethanol mechanisms of toxicity, are discussed.

Dendrobium huoshanense polysaccharide prevents ethanol-induced liver injury in mice by metabolomic analysis

“…Chronic or excessive alcohol consumption may lead to alterations in the chemical compositions and structures of biomembrane in hepatic cells, which is predominantly caused by ethanol induced alterations in phospholipid metabolism [24]. The elevated level of phosphocholine observed both in serum and in liver during ethanol induced liver injury of mice was remarkably decreased by DHP administration, implying that phospholipid metabolism was restored with DHP as described in the previous reports [25][26][27]. l-Proline, an essential component of collagen, can be catalyzed into hydroxyproline (HYP) by proline hydroxylase to synthesize collagen, which may aggravate the procession of alcoholic liver injury [28].…”

Changes in the serum metabolite profile correlate with decreased brain gray matter volume in moderate-to-heavy drinking young adults

“…However, in pathology studies, heavy alcohol use has not been associated with significant loss in gray matter volumes but rather with white matter atrophy and focal neuronal loss (de la Monte & Kril, 2014). At the same time, changes in amino acid and energy metabolism, such as decreased amounts of glutamine and citrulline, have been reported in association with alcohol consumption (Gika & Wilson, 2014;Jaremek et al, 2013;Lehikoinen et al, 2018;Wurtz et al, 2016). Moreover, similar changes in metabolic processes have been reported in the brain tissue of rodents after alcohol exposure (Meinhardt et al, 2015).…”

The Effects of Ethanol on the Heart: Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

“…Ethanol has active metabolites (acetaldehyde-acetate, fatty-acid ethyl esters), is a potent enzymatic inductor [20,21], and interacts with other drugs [22], but its effect also depends on the characteristics of the target organ, with excitable (brain, heart) [23] and metabolic (liver, pancreas) organs [24] being more susceptible to ethanol-induced organ damage. In addition, there is a relevant role on each organ, particularly on defense and adaptive mechanisms, with a clear induction of anti-oxidant, metabolic, and anti-inflammatory protective responses as a result of ethanol aggression [18,25,26]. This multi-factorial effect is attributed to genetic factors [27] and ethnic [28] variability.…”