4 research outputs found
Metabolic profiling detects early effects of environmental and lifestyle exposure to cadmium in a human population
Background: The ‘exposome’ represents the accumulation of all environmental exposures across a lifetime. Topdown
strategies are required to assess something this comprehensive, and could transform our understanding of
how environmental factors affect human health. Metabolic profiling (metabonomics/metabolomics) defines an
individual’s metabolic phenotype, which is influenced by genotype, diet, lifestyle, health and xenobiotic exposure,
and could also reveal intermediate biomarkers for disease risk that reflect adaptive response to exposure. We
investigated changes in metabolism in volunteers living near a point source of environmental pollution: a closed
zinc smelter with associated elevated levels of environmental cadmium. Methods: High-resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy (metabonomics) was used to acquire urinary metabolic profiles
from 178 human volunteers. The spectral data were subjected to multivariate and univariate analysis to identify
metabolites that were correlated with lifestyle or biological factors. Urinary levels of 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine were
also measured, using mass spectrometry, as a marker of systemic oxidative stress. Results: Six urinary metabolites, either associated with mitochondrial metabolism (citrate, 3-hydroxyisovalerate, 4-
deoxy-erythronic acid) or one-carbon metabolism (dimethylglycine, creatinine, creatine), were associated with
cadmium exposure. In particular, citrate levels retained a significant correlation to urinary cadmium and smoking
status after controlling for age and sex. Oxidative stress (as determined by urinary 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine levels)
was elevated in individuals with high cadmium exposure, supporting the hypothesis that heavy metal
accumulation was causing mitochondrial dysfunction. Conclusions: This study shows evidence that an NMR-based metabolic profiling study in an uncontrolled human
population is capable of identifying intermediate biomarkers of response to toxicants at true environmental
concentrations, paving the way for exposome research.
Keywords: metabonomics, cadmium, environmental health, exposome, metabolomics, molecular epidemiolog