Metabolomics in atherosclerosis

Abstract

It is well established that atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACD) is a leading cause of death in the West. There are several predisposing factors for ACD, which can be divided into two groups: firstly modifiable risk factors, including hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle and secondly the unmodifiable risk factors such as age, gender and heredity. Since single biomarkers are unable to provide sufficient information about the biochemical pathways responsible for the disease, there is a need for a holistic approach technology, e.g. metabolomics, that provide sufficiently detailed information about the metabolic status and assay results will be able to guide food, drug and lifestyle optimisation. Rather than investigating a single pathway, metabolomics deal with the integrated identification of biological and pathological molecular pathways. Mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are the two most commonly used techniques for metabolite profiling. This detailed review concluded that metabolomics investigations seem to have great potential in identifying small groups of disturbed metabolites which if put together should draw various metabolic routs that lead to the common track pathophysiology. The current evidence in using metabolomics in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is also limited and morewell designed studies remain to be established, which might significantly improve the comprehension of atherosclerosis pathophysiology and consequently management.

The influence of different diets on metabolism and atherosclerosis processes—A porcine model: Blood serum, urine and tissues 1H NMR metabolomics targeted analysis

“…Although studied for decades, the molecular background of diet-induced atherosclerosis is not fully recognized [20]. …”

“…Atherosclerosis is a result of complex interaction of various risk factors including high fat and carbohydrate–Western type diet, lack of physical activity and many others [ 18 , 19 ]. Although studied for decades, the molecular background of diet-induced atherosclerosis is not fully recognized [ 20 ].…”

<p>Serum untargeted lipidomic profiling reveals dysfunction of phospholipid metabolism in subclinical coronary artery disease</p>

“…However, the exact role of individual products of lipid metabolism in the calcification process remains undetermined. Because of the diverse composition and distribution of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (FAs) in lipid headgroups, for example, glycerol (in TGs) and choline (in phosphatidylcholine [PC]), individual lipid molecules may differ in their functional properties 16…”

Metabolomics analysis of the therapeutic mechanism of Semen Descurainiae Oil on hyperlipidemia rats using 1H‐NMR and LC–MS

“…Although NMR provides more quantitative and reproducible results, and can analyze intact tissues, its sensitivity is lower than that of LC–MS. LC–MS requires the prior separation of metabolites using chromatography and its results may be disrupted by discriminated ionization and matrix effects (Djekic, Nicoll, Novo, & Henein, ; Kordalewska & Markuszewski, ). Therefore, a combination of these two complementary types offers the coverage of a large number of metabolites, which is very useful for the study of the mechanism of effect of Chinese herbal medicine.…”