Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) exposure have been recognized as independent risk factors for the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but their combined impacts and the potential metabolic mechanisms remain poorly characterized. Here, a comprehensive non-targeted metabolomic study was performed following AFB1 exposed to Hep3B cells at two different doses: 16 μM and 32 μM. The metabolites were identified and quantified by an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS)-based strategy. A total of 2679 metabolites were identified, and 392 differential metabolites were quantified among three groups. Pathway analysis indicated that dynamic metabolic reprogramming was induced by AFB1 and various pathways changed significantly, including purine and pyrimidine metabolism, hexosamine pathway and sialylation, fatty acid synthesis and oxidation, glycerophospholipid metabolism, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, glycolysis, and amino acid metabolism. To the best of our knowledge, the alteration of purine and pyrimidine metabolism and decrease of hexosamine pathways and sialylation with AFB1 exposure have not been reported. The results indicated that our metabolomic strategy is powerful to investigate the metabolome change of any stimulates due to its high sensitivity, high resolution, rapid separation, and good metabolome coverage. Besides, these findings provide an overview of the metabolic mechanisms of the AFB1 combined with HBV and new insight into the toxicological mechanism of AFB1. Thus, targeting these metabolic pathways may be an approach to prevent carcinogen-induced cancer, and these findings may provide potential drug targets for therapeutic intervention.
Keywords: AFB1; Hep3B; UPLC-ESI-MS/MS; non-targeted metabolomics.