Identification of Characteristic Metabolic Panels for Different Stages of Prostate Cancer by 1H NMR-based Metabolomics Analysis

Abstract

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most prevalent cancer in males worldwide, yet detecting PCa and its metastases remains a major challenging task in clinical research setups. The present study aimed to characterize the metabolic changes underlying the PCa progression and investigate the efficacy of related metabolic panels for an accurate PCa assessment. Methods: This study analyzed the metabolic profiles of serum samples from PCa patients (n = 75), PCa patients with bone metastasis (PCaB, n = 62), and benign prostatic hyperplasia patients (BPH, n = 50) by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics analysis.Results: Multivariate analysis revealed that BPH, PCa, and PCaB groups showed distinct metabolic divisions, while univariate statistics integrated with variable importance in the projection (VIP) scores identified a differential metabolite series, which included energy, amino acid, and ketone body metabolism. Additionally, our results also revealed the metabolic panels of discriminant metabolites coupled with the clinical parameters (age and body mass index) for discrimination between PCa and BPH, PCaB and BPH, PCaB and PCa achieved the AUC values of 0.828, 0.917, and 0.872, respectively. Conclusions: Overall, this study characterizes the potential metabolic alterations involved in the PCa progression and its metastases, and might provide potential metabolic biomarkers for the diagnosis and classification of PCa.