Metabolomics and transcriptomics based multi-omics integration reveals radiation-induced altered pathway networking and underlying mechanism

• Published in: NPJ systems biology and applications Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 42 - 13
• Main Authors: Maan, Kiran, Baghel, Ruchi, Dhariwal, Seema, Sharma, Apoorva, Bakhshi, Radhika, Rana, Poonam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.09.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/553/2710; 692/53; Amino acid sequence; Bioinformatics; Biological analysis; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carnitine; Computational Biology/Bioinformatics; Computer Appl. in Life Sciences; Fatty acids; Immune response; Life Sciences; Metabolic pathways; Metabolomics; Multivariate analysis; Radiation; Systems Biology; Transcriptomics
• ISSN: 2056-7189; 2056-7189
• DOI: 10.1038/s41540-023-00305-5

Recent advancement in integrated multi-omics has significantly contributed to many areas of the biomedical field. Radiation research has also grasped uprising omics technologies in biomarker identification to aid in triage management. Herein, we have used a combinatorial multi-omics approach based on transcriptomics together with metabolomics and lipidomics of blood from murine exposed to 1 Gy (LD) and 7.5 Gy (HD) of total-body irradiation (TBI) for a comprehensive understanding of biological processes through integrated pathways and networking. Both omics displayed demarcation of HD group from controls using multivariate analysis. Dysregulated amino acids, various PC, PE and carnitine were observed along with many dysregulated genes (Nos2, Hmgcs2, Oxct2a, etc.). Joint-Pathway Analysis and STITCH interaction showed radiation exposure resulted in changes in amino acid, carbohydrate, lipid, nucleotide, and fatty acid metabolism. Elicited immune response was also observed by Gene Ontology. BioPAN has predicted Elovl5, Elovl6 and Fads2 for fatty acid pathways, only in HD group. Collectively, the combined omics approach facilitated a better understanding of processes uncovering metabolic pathways. Presumably, this is the first in radiation metabolomics that utilized an integrated omics approach following TBI in mice. Our work showed that omics integration could be a valuable tool for better comprehending the mechanism as well as molecular interactions.