Serum metabolomics analysis reveals metabolite profile and key biomarkers of idiopathic membranous nephropathy

Mingjun Ye; Donge Tang; Weilong Li; Chiyu Ma; Zhipeng Zeng; Shengyou Liao; Zhuoheng Song; Yu Meng; Fanna Liu; Shaodong Luan; Lianghong Yin; Yong Dai

doi:10.7717/peerj.15167

Serum metabolomics analysis reveals metabolite profile and key biomarkers of idiopathic membranous nephropathy

PeerJ. 2023 Apr 6:11:e15167. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15167. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mingjun Ye^{1

2}, Donge Tang¹, Weilong Li³, Chiyu Ma¹, Zhipeng Zeng¹, Shengyou Liao¹, Zhuoheng Song³, Yu Meng², Fanna Liu², Shaodong Luan³, Lianghong Yin², Yong Dai¹

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Medical Research Center, The Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, Shenzhen People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
² Institute of Nephrology and Blood Purification, the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of Nephrology, Shenzhen Longhua District Central Hospital, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

Background: Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is an organ-specific autoimmune disease with multiple and complex pathogenic mechanisms. Currently, renal biopsy is considered the gold standard for diagnosing membranous nephropathy. However, there were limitations to the renal puncture biopsy, such as the relatively high cost, longer time consuming, and the risk of invasive procedures. We investigated the profile of serum metabolites in IMN patients based on the UHPLC-QE-MS metabolomics technique for exploring the potential disease biomarkers and clinical implementation.

Methods: In our research, we collected serum samples from healthy control (n = 15) and IMN patients (n = 25) to perform metabolomics analysis based on the UHPLC-QE-MS technique.

Result: We identified 215 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) between the IMN and healthy control (HC) groups. Furthermore, these DEMs were significantly identified in histidine metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, purine metabolism, and steroid hormone biosynthesis. Several key DEMs were significantly correlated with the level of clinical parameters, such as serum albumin, IgG, UTP, and cholesterol. Among them, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) was considered the reliable diagnostic biomarker in the IMN group. There was an increased abundance of actinobacteria, phylum proteobacteria, and class gammaproteobacterial in IMN patients for host-microbiome origin analysis.

Conclusion: Our study revealed the profiles of DEMs from the IMN and HC groups. The result demonstrated that there were disorders of amino acids, nucleotides, and steroids hormones metabolism in IMN patients. The down-regulation of DHEAS may be associated with the imbalance of the immune environment in IMN patients. In host-microbiome origin analysis, the gut microbiota and metabolite disturbances were present in IMN patients.

Keywords: Biomarker analysis; Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate; Gut microbes; Idiopathic membranous nephropathy; Metabolomics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomarkers
Glomerulonephritis, Membranous* / complications
Humans
Kidney / pathology
Metabolomics
Serum Albumin

Substances

Biomarkers
Serum Albumin

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.21532893.v1

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou City, China (No. a01219), the Guangdong Provincial Ordinary Colleges Key project (No. 2021ZDZX2042), the Guangzhou Development Zone entrepreneurship leading talent project (No. 2017-L153), and the Guangzhou entrepreneurship leading team (No. 202009030005). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.