Discovery of potential biomarkers for osteoporosis using LC/GC‒MS metabolomic methods

Research Objectives: For early diagnosis of osteoporosis (OP), plasma metabolomics of OP was studied by untargeted LC/GC‒MS in a Chinese elderly population to find possible diagnostic biomarkers.

Design: The research subjects were residents aged ≥65 years who participated in the national free physical examination program in Shanghai. A total of 379 subjects were invited to complete a comprehensive geriatric assessment and face-to-face interviews in local community hospitals.

Setting: A questionnaire survey and related health index measurements were conducted with elderly people over 65 years of age in the Chongming community of Shanghai.

Participants: A total of 379 Chinese community-dwelling older adults aged ≥60 years were recruited for this study.Twenty-nine men and 47 women with OP were screened, and 29 men and 36 women were matched according to age and BMI as normal controls using propensity matching.

Interventions: Plasma from these participants was first analysed by untargeted LC/GC‒MS, followed by FC and P values to screen for differential metabolites and heatmaps and box plots to differentiate metabolites between groups. Finally, metabolic pathway enrichment analysis of differential metabolites was performed based on KEGG, and pathways with P≤0.05 were selected as enrichment pathways.

Main Outcome Measures: We identified potential biomarkers for osteoporosis in Chinese community-dwelling older adults.

Results: We screened metabolites with FC>1.2 or FC < 1/1.2 and P< 0.05 and found 33 differential metabolites in elderly men and 30 differential metabolites in elderly women that could be potential biomarkers for OP. 2-Aminomuconic acid semialdehyde (AUC=0.719, 95% CI 0.582-0.857, P=0.004) has great potential to become a biomarker for screening OP in elderly individuals.

Conclusions: By data analysis, most of these metabolic markers are associated with disturbances in lipid and amino acid metabolism, affecting changes in the bone microenvironment and systemic homeostasis in osteoporotic elderly individuals. 2-Aminomuconic acid semialdehyde has great potential to become a biomarker for screening OP in elderly individuals.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.