Urine Phenylacetylglutamine Determination in Patients with Hyperphenylalaninemia.
J Clin Med 2021;
10:jcm10163674. [PMID:
34441968 PMCID:
PMC8396897 DOI:
10.3390/jcm10163674]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Phenylketonuria (PKU), an autosomal-recessive inborn error of phenylalanine (Phe) metabolism is the most prevalent disorder of amino acid metabolism. Currently, clinical follow-up relies on frequent monitoring of Phe levels in blood. We hypothesize that the urine level of phenylacetylglutamine (PAG), a phenyl-group marker, could be used as a non-invasive biomarker. In this cross-sectional study, a validated liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was used for urinary PAG quantification in 35 participants with hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) and 33 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. We have found that (a) PKU patients present higher urine PAG levels than healthy control subjects, and that (b) there is a significant correlation between urine PAG and circulating Phe levels in patients with HPA. In addition, we show a significant strong correlation between Phe levels from venous blood samples and from capillary finger-prick dried blood spot (DBS) samples collected at the same time in patients with HPA. Further research in order to assess the potential role of urine PAG as a non-invasive biomarker in PKU is warranted.
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