Use of 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance to screen a set of biomarkers for monitoring metabolic disturbances in severe burn patients

INTRODUCTION To establish a plasma metabolomics fingerprint spectrum for severe burn patients and to use it to identify a set of biomarkers that could be used for clinical monitoring. METHODS Twenty-one severe burn patients and three healthy control individuals were enrolled in this study, and the plasma samples from patients and healthy individuals were collected for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. The NMR spectra were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) in order to establish the metabolomics fingerprint representing the changes in metabolism and to select the major biomarkers. RESULTS NMR spectra of the plasma samples showed significant differences between burn patients and healthy individuals. Using metabolomics techniques, we found an Eigen-metabolome that consists of 12 metabolites, which are regulated by 103 enzymes in a global metabolic network. Among these metabolites, α-ketoisovaleric acid, 3-methylhistidine, and β-hydroxybutyric acid were the most important biomarkers that were significantly increased during the early stage of burn injury. These results suggest that the mitochondrial damage and carbohydrate, protein and fatty acid metabolism disturbances occur after burn injury. Our analysis also show that histone deacetylases, which are protein transcription suppressors, were remarkably increased and indicate that protein transcription was inhibited and anabolism was restrained during the early stage of burn injury. CONCLUSIONS Metabolomics techniques based on NMR can be used to monitor metabolism in severe burn patients. Our study demonstrates that integrated 1H-NMR metabolome and global metabolic network analysis is useful for visualizing complex metabolic disturbances after severe burn injury and may provide a new quantitative injury severity evaluation for future clinical use. TRIAL REGISTRATION Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR-OCC-12002145. Registered 25 April 2012.