Serum amino acid concentrations and clinical outcomes in smokers: SPIROMICS metabolomics study

Metabolomics is an emerging science that can inform pathogenic mechanisms behind clinical phenotypes in COPD. We aimed to understand disturbances in the serum metabolome associated with respiratory outcomes in ever-smokers from the SPIROMICS cohort. We measured 27 serum metabolites, mostly amino acids, by ¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in 157 white ever-smokers with and without COPD. We tested the association between log-transformed metabolite concentrations and one-year incidence of respiratory exacerbations after adjusting for age, sex, current smoking, body mass index, diabetes, inhaled or oral corticosteroid use, study site and clinical predictors of exacerbations, including FEV₁% predicted and history of exacerbations. The mean age of participants was 53.7 years and 58% had COPD. Lower concentrations of serum amino acids were independently associated with 1-year incidence of respiratory exacerbations, including tryptophan (β = -4.1, 95% CI [-7.0; -1.1], p = 0.007) and the branched-chain amino acids (leucine: β = -6.0, 95% CI [-9.5; -2.4], p = 0.001; isoleucine: β = -5.2, 95% CI [-8.6; -1.8], p = 0.003; valine: β = -4.1, 95% CI [-6.9; -1.4], p = 0.003). Tryptophan concentration was inversely associated with the blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (p = 0.03) and the BODE index (p = 0.03). Reduced serum amino acid concentrations in ever-smokers with and without COPD are associated with an increased incidence of respiratory exacerbations.