Metabolomics analysis of patients with Schistosoma japonicum infection based on UPLC-MS method

Abstract Background Schistosomiasis is still one of the most serious parasitic diseases. Evidences showed that metabolite profile in serum has potential to act as markers for parasitic disease diagnosis, evaluation of disease progression and prognosis. However, the serum metabolome in patients with Schistosoma japonicum infection was not well-defined. In this study, we investigated the metabolite profiles of patients with chronic S. japonicum infection and those with advanced S. japonicum infection. Methods In this study, 15 patients with advanced S. japonicum infection, 33 patients with chronic S. japonicum infection and 17 healthy volunteers were included according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) was used to perform metabolomics analysis of serum samples from the participants. Results We observed significant differences in metabolite profiles in positive and negative ion modes between patients with advanced S. japonicum infection and patients with chronic S. japonicum infection. Compared with patients with chronic S. japonicum infection, we found that 199 metabolites were significantly up-regulated and 207 metabolites were significantly down-regulated in patients with advanced S. japonicum infection. These differential metabolites were mainly concentrated in steroid hormone biosynthesis, cholesterol metabolism and bile secretion pathways. We also found that certain bile acids levels were significantly up-regulated in the progression from chronic S. japonicum infection to advanced S. japonicum infection. In receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis, we identified 3 metabolites with AUC higher than 0.8, including GCA, GCDCA, and TCDCA, concentrated in cholesterol metabolism, biliary secretion, and primary bile acid biosynthesis. Conclusions This study provided evidences that glycocholic acid (GCA), glycochenodeoxycholate (GCDCA) and taurochenodeoxycholic acid (TCDCA) have potential to act as novel metabolite biomarkers to distinguish patients in different stages of S. japonicum infection. This study will contribute to the understanding of the metabolite mechanisms of the transition from chronic to advanced S. japonicum infection, although more studies are needed to validate this potential role and explore the underlying mechanisms.