Metabolomics Panel Associated with Cystic Fibrosis-Related Diabetes toward Biomarker Discovery

The most prevalent comorbidity among cystic fibrosis
(CF) patients
is cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD). CFRD has been linked to
one of the worse clinical outcomes and a higher mortality. Improved
clinical results have been related to earlier diagnosis and treatment
of CFRD. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the metabolome
of human serum of patients with CFRD. This might aid in identifying
novel biomarkers linked with the pathophysiology of CFRD and its diagnosis.
The liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry
(LC–HRMS) metabolomics approach was utilized for serum samples
from patients with CF (n = 36) and healthy controls
(n = 36). Nine patients in the CF group had CFRD,
and 27 were non-CFRD patients (nCFRD). A total of 2328 metabolites
were significantly altered in CF compared with the healthy control.
Among those, 799 significantly dysregulated metabolites were identified
between CFRD and nCFRD. Arachidonic acid (AA), ascorbate, and aldarate
metabolism were the most common metabolic pathways dysregulated in
CF. l-Homocysteic acid (l-HCA) levels were significantly
reduced in CF and CFRD compared to the control and nCFRD, respectively.
In addition, gamma-glutamylglycine and l-5-hydroxytryptophan
(5-HTP) had the highest discrimination between CFRD and nCFRD with
AUC (0.716 and 0.683, respectively). These biomarkers might serve
as diagnostic biomarkers and aid in understanding potential metabolic
changes linked to CF and CFRD.