Potential of urinary metabolites for diagnosing multiple sclerosis

ACS Chem Biol. 2013 Apr 19;8(4):684-90. doi: 10.1021/cb300673e. Epub 2013 Feb 8.

Abstract

A definitive diagnostic test for multiple sclerosis (MS) does not exist; instead physicians use a combination of medical history, magnetic resonance imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid analysis (CSF). Significant effort has been employed to identify biomarkers from CSF to facilitate MS diagnosis; however, none of the proposed biomarkers have been successful to date. Urine is a proven source of metabolite biomarkers and has the potential to be a rapid, noninvasive, inexpensive, and efficient diagnostic tool for various human diseases. Nevertheless, urinary metabolites have not been extensively explored as a source of biomarkers for MS. We demonstrate that urinary metabolites have significant promise for monitoring disease-progression, and response to treatment in MS patients. NMR analysis of urine permitted the identification of metabolites that differentiate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)-mice (prototypic disease model for MS) from healthy and MS drug-treated EAE mice.

Publication types

  • Letter
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Biomarkers / urine*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Female
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Multiple Sclerosis / diagnosis*
  • Multiple Sclerosis / urine

Substances

  • Biomarkers