Differentiation in TCM patterns of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by comprehensive metabolomic and lipidomic characterization

Jiansheng Li; Xinguang Liu; Yanmin Shi; Yang Xie; Jianya Yang; Yan Du; Ang Zhang; Jinyan Wu

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1208480

Differentiation in TCM patterns of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by comprehensive metabolomic and lipidomic characterization

Front Immunol. 2023 Jul 10:14:1208480. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1208480. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jiansheng Li^{1

2

3

4}, Xinguang Liu^{1

2

3}, Yanmin Shi^{1

2

4}, Yang Xie^{1

2

4}, Jianya Yang^{1

2

4}, Yan Du^{1

2

3}, Ang Zhang^{1

2

3}, Jinyan Wu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Co-construction Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Medicine and Respiratory Diseases by Henan & Education Ministry of P.R. China, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China.
² Henan Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine for Respiratory Disease, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China.
³ Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Respiratory Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex disease involving inflammation, cell senescence, and autoimmunity. Dialectical treatment for COPD with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has the advantage of fewer side effects, more effective suppression of inflammation, and improved immune function. However, the biological base of TCM pattern differentiation in COPD remains unclear.

Methods: Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (LC-Q-Orbitrap MS/MS) based metabolomics and lipidomics were used to analyze the serum samples from COPD patients of three TCM patterns in Lung Qi Deficiency (n=65), Lung-Kidney Qi Deficiency (n=54), Lung-Spleen Qi Deficiency (n=52), and healthy subjects (n=41). Three cross-comparisons were performed to characterize metabolic markers for different TCM patterns of COPD vs healthy subjects.

Results: We identified 28, 8, and 16 metabolites with differential abundance between three TCM patterns of COPD vs healthy subjects, respectively, the metabolic markers included cortisol, hypoxanthine, fatty acids, alkyl-/alkenyl-substituted phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylcholine, etc. Three panels of metabolic biomarkers specific to the above three TCM patterns yielded areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.992, 0.881, and 0.928, respectively, with sensitivity of 97.1%, 88.6%, and 91.4%, respectively, and specificity of 96.4%, 81.8%, and 83.9%, respectively.

Discussion: Combining metabolomics and lipidomics can more comprehensively and accurately trace metabolic markers. As a result, the differences in metabolism were proven to underlie different TCM patterns of COPD, which provided evidence to aid our understanding of the biological basis of dialectical treatment, and can also serve as biomarkers for more accurate diagnosis.

Keywords: COPD; biomarker; lipidomics; metabolites; traditional Chinese medicine pattern.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomarkers
Cell Differentiation
Humans
Inflammation
Lipidomics
Medicine, Chinese Traditional* / methods
Metabolomics
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* / drug therapy
Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Substances

Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R & D Program (2018YFC1704806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82274274), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M662501), and Henan Provincial Science and Technology Research Project (No. 222102310375). Joint Fund for Science and Technology Research of Henan Province (No. 222301420020).