Abstract
BackgroundThe diagnosis of Behçet’s disease (BD) remains challenging due to the lack of diagnostic biomarkers. This study aims to identify potential serum metabolites associated with BD and its disease activity.MethodsMedical records and serum samples of 24 pretreated BD patients, 12 post-treated BD patients, and age-matched healthy controls (HC) were collected for metabolomics and lipidomics profiling using UPLC-QTOF-MS and UPLC-QTOF-MSE approaches. Additionally, serum samples from an independent cohort of BD patients, disease controls including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Takayasu’s arteritis (TA), Crohn’s disease (CD) patients, and HC were collected for further validation of two potential biomarkers using UPLC-QTOFMS analysis.ResultsUnsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) showed a clear separation of metabolomics profiles of BD patients from HC. Statistical analysis of the data revealed differential metabolites between BD patients and HC. The serum levels of some phosphatidylcholines (PCs) were found to be significantly lower in BD patients, while the levels of several polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were increased markedly in the BD group compared with HC. Furthermore, the serum level of two omega-6 PUFAs, linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA), were dramatically decreased in patients with remission. A validation cohort confirmed that the serum LA and AA levels in BD patients were significantly higher than those in HC and patients with RA, SLE, TA, and CD. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated good sensitivity and specificity.ConclusionsThe serum metabolomics profiles in BD patients are altered. Serum LA and AA are promising diagnostic biomarkers for BD.
Highlights
The diagnosis of Behçet’s disease (BD) remains challenging due to the lack of diagnostic biomarkers
Our results showed a reduced level of two n-6 Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in post-treatment BD patients, which indicated that these PUFAs, as indicators of inflammatory symptoms, may be useful for treatment assessment
In conclusion, our study supports the importance of PCs, linoleic acid (LA), arachidonic acid (AA), and oleic acid (OA) in the diagnosis and therapeutic effects of BD
Summary
The diagnosis of Behçet’s disease (BD) remains challenging due to the lack of diagnostic biomarkers. Behçet’s disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem inflammatory disorder characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulceration, uveitis, and skin lesions. The diagnosis of BD is primarily based on clinical manifestations, and no diagnostic biomarkers are available. Since the clinical symptoms of BD are Metabolomics, an emerging “omics” science, uses state-of-the-art quantitative analysis approaches and advanced bioinformatic methods to characterize the metabolome. It reflects both physiological and pathological states, and it may detect the alterations of affected metabolites at the early stages of disease due to its great sensitivity [2].
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