1 research outputs found
Potential Metabolite Biomarkers of Multiple Sclerosis from Multiple Biofluids
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive
neurological
disorder without a cure, but early intervention can slow disease progression
and improve the quality of life for MS patients. Obtaining an accurate
diagnosis for MS is an arduous and error-prone task that requires
a combination of a detailed medical history, a comprehensive neurological
exam, clinical tests such as magnetic resonance imaging, and the exclusion
of other possible diseases. A simple and definitive biofluid test
for MS does not exist, but is highly desirable. To address this need,
we employed NMR-based metabolomics to identify potentially unique
metabolite biomarkers of MS from a cohort of age and sex-matched samples
of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum, and urine from 206 progressive
MS (PMS) patients, 46 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients, and
99 healthy volunteers without a MS diagnosis. We identified 32 metabolites
in CSF that varied between the control and PMS patients. Utilizing
patient-matched serum samples, we were able to further identify 31
serum metabolites that may serve as biomarkers for PMS patients. Lastly,
we identified 14 urine metabolites associated with PMS. All potential
biomarkers are associated with metabolic processes linked to the pathology
of MS, such as demyelination and neuronal damage. Four metabolites
with identical profiles across all three biofluids were discovered,
which demonstrate their potential value as cross-biofluid markers
of PMS. We further present a case for using metabolic profiles from
PMS patients to delineate biomarkers of RRMS. Specifically, three
metabolites exhibited a variation from healthy volunteers without
MS through RRMS and PMS patients. The consistency of metabolite changes
across multiple biofluids, combined with the reliability of a receiver
operating characteristic classification, may provide a rapid diagnostic
test for MS