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Metabolomic profiling for identification of potential biomarkers in patients with dermatomyositis

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Abstract

Introduction

Dermatomyositis (DM) is a rare autoimmune myopathy characterized by skin lesions, proximal muscle weakness and muscle inflammation. The pathogenesis of DM is unclear, and identification of reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis of DM is critical for design of a specific therapy for this disease.

Objectives

To find and identify potential serum biomarkers in DM patients.

Methods

We performed an untargeted metabolomic approach using UHPLC-MS/MS. The blood serum metabolomic profiles of 26 DM patients and 26 healthy controls were collected. Multivariate analysis of the metabolomic profile was applied to differentiate DM patients and controls and to find potential biomarkers.

Results

A significantly disturbed metabolic profile of DM patients was observed. Pathway analysis showed that aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, and nitrogen metabolism are the most prominently altered pathways in DM. Receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that glutamine, methionine, isoleucine, tryptophan, glutamic acid, indole, protocatechuic acid, and phenylalanine were potential biomarkers for DM diagnosis in terms of both sensitivity and specificity.

Conclusions

Our study provides new insight into underlying mechanisms of DM, and we suggest that we should pay more attention to these metabolic pathways in the prevention and treatment of DM.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all participants in this study and the clinical doctors from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital for collection of samples. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 81301801 and 81430056), Science and Technology Planning Project of Chaoyang District, Beijing (CYSF1835), R&D Infrastructure and Facility Development Program of Fujian (2018H2002), Industry University Research Project of Fujian (2018H6101), and the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China (Grant W2015CAE016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Sakura Garden East Street, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of China

    Tie Zhang

  2. Department of Echocadiography, The First Hospital of JiLin University, 71 Xinmin Street, Changchun, 132200, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Xu

  3. Department of Pathology, Institute of Systems Biomedicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Tumor Systems Biology, Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Liu & Jia Liu

  4. School of Resources and Chemical Engineering, Sanming University, Sanming, Fujian, People’s Republic of China

    Jia Liu

  5. Fujian Engineering Research Center for Advanced Fluorine-Containing Materials, Sanming, Fujian, People’s Republic of China

    Jia Liu

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  1. Tie Zhang
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  2. Jing Xu
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  3. Yang Liu
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  4. Jia Liu
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Contributions

TZ and JX provided and pretreated the samples; JL performed the LC-MS analysis; JL and YL performed the data analysis and co-wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yang Liu or Jia Liu.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital.

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Cite this article

Zhang, T., Xu, J., Liu, Y. et al. Metabolomic profiling for identification of potential biomarkers in patients with dermatomyositis. Metabolomics 15, 77 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-019-1539-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-019-1539-9

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