Investigating the Urinary Metabolome in the First Year of Life and Its Association with Later Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Non-Typical Neurodevelopment in the MARBLES Study

Association between the third trimester maternal serum metabolome and child growth and development through the first year of life

Evidence suggests that maternal metabolome may be associated with child health outcomes. We analyzed the association between the maternal metabolome between 28-35 gestational weeks and child growth and development during the first year. A prospective cohort of 98 mother-child dyads was followed at birth, 1, 6, and 12 months. Maternal serum samples were collected for targeted LC-MS/MS analysis, which measured 132 metabolites. The child's growth and development were assessed at each time-point. Z-scores were calculated based on WHO growth standards, and the domains of development were assessed using the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3). Multiple linear mixed-effects models were performed and confounders were identified using a Diagram Acyclic Graph. The Benjamini-Hochberg correction was used for multiple comparison adjustments. We found a positive association between lysophosphatidylcholines (14:0; 16:0; 16:1; 17:0; 18:0; 18:1; 18:2; 20:4) with the z-score of weight-for-age, and lysophosphatidylcholines (14:0; 16:0; 16:1; 18:0) and taurine with the z-score of weight-for-length, and lysophosphatidylcholines (14:0; 16:0; 16:1; 17:0; 18:0; 18:1; 18:2; 20:4) and glycine with the z-score of BMI-for-age. The leucine, methionine, tryptophan, and valine were negatively associated with the fine motor skills domain. We observed an association between maternal metabolome and the growth and child's development throughout the first year.

Exploration of urine metabolic biomarkers for new-onset, untreated pediatric epilepsy: A gas and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry-based metabolomics study

OBJECTIVE

The discovery of objective indicators for recent epileptic seizures will help confirm the diagnosis of epilepsy and evaluate therapeutic effects. Past studies had shortcomings such as the inclusion of patients under treatment and those with various etiologies that could confound the analysis results significantly. We aimed to minimize such confounding effects and to explore the small molecule biomarkers associated with the recent occurrence of epileptic seizures using urine metabolomics.

METHODS

This is a multicenter prospective study. Subjects included pediatric patients aged 2 to 12 years old with new-onset, untreated epilepsy, who had had the last seizure within 1 month before urine collection. Controls included healthy children aged 2 to 12 years old. Those with underlying or chronic diseases, acute illnesses, or recent administration of medications or supplements were excluded. Targeted metabolome analysis of spot urine samples was conducted using gas chromatography (GC)- and liquid chromatography (LC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS).

RESULTS

We enrolled 17 patients and 21 controls. Among 172 metabolites measured by GC/MS/MS and 41 metabolites measured by LC/MS/MS, only taurine was consistently reduced in the epilepsy group. This finding was subsequently confirmed by the absolute quantification of amino acids. No other metabolites were consistently altered between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Urine metabolome analysis, which covers a larger number of metabolites than conventional biochemistry analyses, found no consistently altered small molecule metabolites except for reduced taurine in epilepsy patients compared to healthy controls. Further studies with larger samples, subjects with different ages, expanded target metabolites, and the investigation of plasma samples are required.