Document Type : Research Articles
Authors
1
Office of Research Academic and Innovation, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
2
National Doping Control Centre, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
3
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Abstract
Background: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The metabolomic
profiling has been shown to be associated with pathogenic mechanisms in many medical conditions including
CHB. The purpose of this study was to investigate the urine metabolomic profiles in CHB patients by gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Methods: Urine samples were collected from CHB patients (n = 20)
and normal control subjects (n = 20). Metabolite profiles were assessed using GC/MS in conjunction with multivariate
statistical analysis, in order to identify biomarker metabolites. Pathway analysis was performed by MetaboAnalyst
3.0 and KEGG database.Results: Twelve out of 377 metabolites were shown to be significantly different between the
CHB and normal control groups (p < 0.05). These include palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, benzoic acid, butanoic
acid, cholesterol, glycine, 3-heptanone, 4-heptanone, hexanal, 1-tetradecanol and naphthalene. Multivariate statistical
analysis constructed using these expressed metabolites showed CHB patients can be discriminated from healthy controls
with high sensitivity (95%) and specificity (85%). All the metabolic perturbations in this disease are associated with
pathways of fatty acid, amino acid, bile acid and gut microbial metabolism. Conclusion: CHB patients have a specific
urinary metabolomic profile. The abnormalities of fatty acid, amino acid, bile acid, and gut microbial metabolism lead
to the development of disease progression. GC/MS-based assay is a promising tool for the metabolomic study in CHB.
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