Abstract
Although tuberculosis (TB) is a severe health problem worldwide, the current diagnostic methods are far from optimal. Metabolomics is increasingly being used in the study of infectious diseases. We performed metabolome profiling to identify potential biomarkers in patients with active TB. Serum samples from 21 patients with active pulmonary TB, 20 subjects with latent TB infection (LTBI), and 28 healthy controls were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) followed by multivariate and univariate analyses. Metabolic profiles indicated higher serum levels of glutamate, sulfoxy methionine, and aspartate and lower serum levels of glutamine, methionine, and asparagine in active TB patients than in LTBI subjects or healthy controls. The ratios between metabolically related partners (glutamate/glutamine, sulfoxy methionine/methionine, and aspartate/asparagine) were also elevated in the active TB group. There was no significant difference in the serum concentration of these metabolites according to the disease extent or risk of relapse in active TB patients. Novel serum biomarkers such as glutamate, sulfoxy methionine, aspartate, glutamine, methionine, and asparagine are potentially useful for adjunctive, rapid, and noninvasive pulmonary TB diagnosis.
Highlights
Tuberculosis (TB) is a severe health problem worldwide, the current diagnostic methods are far from optimal
This study demonstrated that levels of serum metabolites and their ratios could differentiate adults with active pulmonary TB from both adults with latent TB infection (LTBI) or adults with no TB infection in South Korea, an area with an intermediate burden of TB and low burden of human immunodeficiency virus infection
As the experiments in the previous studies were conducted in a non-targeted manner, the types of biosignatures were diverse, ranging from modified lipids and peptides to simple amino acids
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) is a severe health problem worldwide, the current diagnostic methods are far from optimal. Metabolic profiles indicated higher serum levels of glutamate, sulfoxy methionine, and aspartate and lower serum levels of glutamine, methionine, and asparagine in active TB patients than in LTBI subjects or healthy controls. There was no significant difference in the serum concentration of these metabolites according to the disease extent or risk of relapse in active TB patients Novel serum biomarkers such as glutamate, sulfoxy methionine, aspartate, glutamine, methionine, and asparagine are potentially useful for adjunctive, rapid, and noninvasive pulmonary TB diagnosis. Metabolomics has emerged as a potential tool making remarkable progress in novel biomarker research It can execute multiplexed profiling and compare multiple metabolites in a biological sample[3].
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