Novel Potential Diagnostic Serum Biomarkers of Metabolomics in Osteoarticular Tuberculosis Patients: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Osteoarticular tuberculosis is one of the extrapulmonary tuberculosis, which is mainly caused by direct infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis or secondary infection of tuberculosis in other parts. Due to the low specificity of the current detection method, it is leading to a high misdiagnosis rate and subsequently affecting the follow-up treatment and prognosis. Metabolomics is mainly used to study the changes of the body’s metabolites in different states, so it can serve as an important means in the discovery of disease-related metabolic biomarkers and the corresponding mechanism research. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to detect and analyze metabolites in the serum with osteoarticular tuberculosis patients, disease controls, and healthy controls to find novel metabolic biomarkers that could be used in the diagnosis of osteoarticular tuberculosis. Our results showed that 68 differential metabolites (p<0.05, fold change>1.0) were obtained in osteoarticular tuberculosis serum after statistical analysis. Then, through the evaluation of diagnostic efficacy, PC[o-16:1(9Z)/18:0], PC[20:4(8Z,11Z,14Z,17Z)/18:0], PC[18:0/22:5(4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z)], SM(d18:1/20:0), and SM[d18:1/18:1(11Z)] were found as potential biomarkers with high diagnostic efficacy. Using bioinformatics analysis, we further found that these metabolites share many lipid metabolic signaling pathways, such as choline metabolism, sphingolipid signaling, retrograde endocannabinoid signaling, and sphingolipid and glycerophospholipid metabolism; these results suggest that lipid metabolism plays an important role in the pathological process of tuberculosis. This study can provide certain reference value for the study of metabolic biomarkers of osteoarticular tuberculosis and the mechanism of lipid metabolism in osteoarticular tuberculosis and even other tuberculosis diseases.

Exploration of Lipid Metabolism Alterations in Children with Active Tuberculosis Using UHPLC-MS/MS

“…In addition to regulating the immune cells of the host, infection with MTB can also regulate lipid metabolism. Our results were consistent with those of a metabolomic analysis of patients with osteoarticular TB, in which PC and PE were upregulated [29].…”

Promising probiotic-fermented soymilk for alleviating acute diarrhea: insights into the microbiome and metabolomics

“…36 LysoPE is an important inflammatory marker leading to cell damage. 37 Phosphatidylglycerol (PG) is strongly associated with cancer disorders, 38 phosphatidylcholine (PC) metabolite correlated with fat accumulation and osteoarticular tuberculosis patients, 39,40 phosphatidylserine (PS) plays a crucial role in cholesterol biosynthesis in cell membranes, 41 and histamine metabolism is a mediator and regulator of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, TNF-α, and TNF-α factors. 42,43 Their combination with these pathogenic bacteria can stimulate the secretion of inflammatory factors, leading to systemic inflammation during diarrhea.…”

Advances in Mass Spectrometry-Based Blood Metabolomics Profiling for Non-Cancer Diseases: A Comprehensive Review

“…Recent research highlights elevated levels of leucine and kynurenine coupled with reduced citrulline and glutamine levels in latent tuberculosis [ 157 ]. In osteoarticular tuberculosis, lipid metabolites were found to be a significant category of biomarkers [ 158 ]. Lipid metabolites, particularly glycerophospholipids, feature prominently in biomarkers associated with tuberculosis progression [ 79 , 159 ].…”