Metabolic profiling of human gliomas assessed with NMR

J Clin Neurosci. 2019 Oct:68:275-280. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2019.07.078. Epub 2019 Aug 10.

Abstract

Little is known about the underlying metabolic alterations of gliomas. The objective of this study was to analyze metabolomic profiles of gliomas diagnosed according to revised WHO classification to demonstrate metabolic signatures beyond isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1/2 mutation. 1H NMR spectroscopy of tumor extracts was performed to analyze brain tumor metabolism. We detected 46 metabolites including 2-hydroxyglutarate from human brain tumors. Metabolic profiles obtained were analyzed using multivariate analysis and MetaboAnalyst 3.0, a pathway analysis tool. We found that lactate, glutamate, alanine, glutamine, 2-hydroxglutarate, serine, O-phosphocholine, glycine, glycerol, myo-inositol, aspartate, leucine, threonine, creatine, and valine had top-ranked VIP scores in metabolic pathway analyses of glioma. Major metabolism pathways perturbed in glioma included alanine/aspartate/glutamate metabolism, glycine/serine/threonine metabolism, pyruvate metabolism, taurine/hypotaurine metabolism, and d-glutamine/d-glutamate metabolism. Altered metabolites were defined between low-grade and high-grade gliomas. We identified metabolomics signatures of gliomas associated with 2-hydroxglutarate and glioma grade. Metabolic approach may lead to metabolomic cluster-precision strategy and development of metabolic anti-glioma therapy in the future.

Keywords: 2-Hydroxyglutarate; Glioma; Metabolomics; Nuclear magnetic resonance.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Brain Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Brain Neoplasms / pathology
  • Female
  • Glioma / metabolism*
  • Glioma / pathology
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods*
  • Male
  • Metabolomics / methods*
  • Middle Aged