Variations in the metabolome in response to disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis

• Published in: BMC musculoskeletal disorders Vol. 17; no. 1; p. 353
• Main Authors: Tatar, Zuzana, Migne, Carole, Petera, Melanie, Gaudin, Philippe, Lequerre, Thierry, Marotte, Hubert, Tebib, Jacques, Pujos Guillot, Estelle, Soubrier, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 22.08.2016; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Adalimumab - therapeutic use; Adult; Aged; Antirheumatic Agents - therapeutic use; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - blood; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - diagnosis; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - drug therapy; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - metabolism; Care and treatment; Chromatography, Reverse-Phase; Complications and side effects; Discriminant Analysis; Etanercept - therapeutic use; Female; Food and Nutrition; Human health and pathology; Humans; Infliximab - therapeutic use; Influence; Life Sciences; Male; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Metabolome; Middle Aged; Prognosis; Rheumatoid arthritis; Treatment Outcome; Tumor necrosis factor; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - antagonists & inhibitors; Drug response biomarkers; Metabolomics; Anti-TNF-alpha therapy; Rheumatoid arthritis; anti-TNF-alpha therapy; drug response biomarkers; metabolomics; profil métabolique; échantillon de plasma; rheumatoid arthritis; facteur de nécrose tumorale
• ISSN: 1471-2474; 1471-2474
• DOI: 10.1186/s12891-016-1214-5

Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) therapies are able to control rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity and limit structural damage. Yet no predictive factor of response to anti-TNF has been identified. Metabolomic profile is known to vary in response to different inflammatory rheumatisms so determining it could substantially improve diagnosis and, consequently, prognosis. The aim of this study was to use mass spectrometry to determine whether there is variation in the metabolome in patients treated with anti-TNF and whether any particular metabolomic profile can serve as a predictor of therapeutic response. Blood samples were analyzed in 140 patients with active RA before initiation of anti-TNF treatment and after 6 months of Anti-TNF treatment (100 good responders and 40 non-responders). Plasma was deproteinized, extracted and analyzed by reverse-phase chromatography-QToF mass spectrometry. Extracted and normalized ions were tested by univariate and ANOVA analysis followed by partial least-squares regression-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Orthogonal Signal Correction (OSC) was also used to filter data from unwanted non-related effects. Disease activity scores (DAS 28) obtained at 6 months were correlated with metabolome variation findings to identify a metabolite that is predictive of therapeutic response to anti-TNF. After 6 months of anti-TNF therapy, 100 patients rated as good responders and 40 patients as non-responders according to EULAR criteria. Metabolomic investigations suggested two different metabolic fingerprints splitting the good-responders group and the non-responders group, without differences in anti-TNF therapies. Univariate analysis revealed 24 significant ions in positive mode (p < 0.05) and 31 significant ions in negative mode (p < 0.05). Once intersected with PLS results, only 35 ions remained. Carbohydrate derivates emerged as strong candidate determinants of therapeutic response. This is the first study describing metabolic profiling in response to anti-TNF treatments using plasma samples. The study highlighted two different metabolic profiles splitting good responders from non-responders.