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Updated: Feb 14, 2026
Large Scale Non-targeted Metabolomic Profiling of Serum by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry UPLC-MS
Published on: March 14, 2013
Wheezing preschool children with early-onset asthma reveal a specific metabolomic profile
Silvia Carraro1, Sara Bozzetto1, Giuseppe Giordano1,2
1Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Insights
Urinary metabolic profiles can identify preschoolers with recurrent wheezing who will develop early-onset asthma. This metabolomic approach may lead to early, non-invasive asthma biomarkers for children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pulmonology
- Metabolomics
- Biomarker Discovery
Background:
- Recurrent wheezing is common in preschoolers, with some developing early-onset asthma.
- Differentiating transient wheezing from persistent asthma is clinically important.
- Current diagnostic methods lack early predictive capabilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the potential of urinary metabolomic profiles for early asthma identification in preschoolers.
- To determine if biochemical-metabolic urinary profiles can distinguish between transient wheezing and early-onset asthma.
- To explore novel non-invasive biomarkers for predicting asthma development.
Main Methods:
- A prospective study followed 34 preschoolers with recurrent wheezing for 3 years.
- Urine samples were collected at recruitment and analyzed using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS).
- Statistical analyses identified distinguishing metabolomic variables between transient wheezing and early-onset asthma groups.
Main Results:
- A distinct subset of urinary metabolites differentiated children with transient wheezing from those with early-onset asthma.
- The predictive model achieved high accuracy, with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.99.
- Cross-validation confirmed the model's robustness, yielding an AUC of 0.88 (P = .002).
Conclusions:
- Urinary metabolomic profiles can effectively discriminate between preschoolers with transient wheezing and early-onset asthma.
- These findings suggest the potential for developing early, non-invasive biomarkers for asthma prediction.
- This metabolomic approach may aid in personalized management strategies for pediatric respiratory conditions.
Background:
Many children of preschool age present with recurrent wheezing. Most of them outgrow their symptoms, while some have early-onset asthma. Aim of this prospective preliminary study was to apply a metabolomic approach to see whether biochemical-metabolic urinary profiles can have a role in the early identification of the children with asthma.
Methods:
Preschool children with recurrent wheezing were recruited and followed up for 3 years, after which they were classified as cases of transient wheezing or early-onset asthma. A urine sample was collected at recruitment and analyzed using a metabolomic approach based on UPLC mass spectrometry.
Results:
Among 34 children aged 4.0 ± 1.1 years recruited, at the end of the 3-year follow-up, 16 were classified as having transient wheezing and 16 as cases of early-onset asthma. Through a joint multivariate and univariate statistical analyses, we identified a subset of metabolomic variables that enabled the 2 groups to be clearly distinguished. The model built using the identified variables showed an AUC = 0.99 and an AUC = 0.88 on sevenfold full cross-validation (P = .002).
Conclusions:
Metabolomic urinary profile can discriminate preschoolers with recurrent wheezing who will outgrow their symptoms from those who have early-onset asthma. These results may pave the way to the characterization of early non-invasive biomarkers capable of predicting asthma development.
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