Background: The aim of this preliminary study is to characterize by ¹H high-resolution magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy (HRMAS) the metabolic content of intact biopsy samples obtained from 12 patients suffering from neuroblastoma (NB).
Procedure: The biochemical NB profile was first compared to normal adrenal medulla. In a second step, the relationship between the tumor metabolic profile and the patients' clinical data was investigated.
Results: A higher level of creatine, glutamine/glutamate, acetate and glycine characterized NB biopsies while healthy adrenal medulla tissue contained adrenaline and a larger amount of ascorbic acid. Adrenaline, which was undetectable in NB spectra, represented the metabolic signature of normal adrenal medulla. NB from patients younger than 12 months contained a higher level of acetate and lysine. Conversely, higher amounts of glutathione, glutamate, myo-inositol, glycine, serine and ascorbic acid were detected in NB samples belonging to younger children. Glutamine/glutamate, aspartate, creatine, glycine were characteristic of stage I-II NB. Acetate and creatine were characteristic of stage IV NB. Finally, a relatively higher amount of aspartate, succinate, and glutathione was detected in patients alive without active disease after a mean follow-up of 7 years whereas a higher concentration of acetate and taurine was characteristic of patients with worse prognosis.
Conclusions: Our preliminary results suggest the existence of a complex metabolic reality in NB, probably representative of tumor behavior. However, the real impact of these promising results should be assessed by long-term prospective studies on a larger cohort of patients.
Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.