Metabolomics of osteoarthritis: emerging novel markers and their potential clinical utility

OA is a multifactorial and progressive disease with no cure yet. Substantial efforts have been made and several biochemical and genetic markers have been reported, but neither alone nor in combination is adequate to identify early OA changes or determine disease progression with sufficient predictive values. Recent advances in metabolomics and its application to the study of OA have led to elucidation of involvement of several metabolic pathways and new specific metabolic markers for OA. Some of these metabolic pathways affect amino acid metabolism, including branched chain amino acids and arginine, and phospholipid metabolism involving conversion of phosphatidylcholine to lysophosphatidylcholine. These metabolic markers appear to be clinically actionable and may potentially improve the clinical management of OA patients. In this article, we review the recent studies of metabolomics of OA, discuss those novel metabolic markers and their potential clinical utility, and indicate future research directions in the field.