Metabolic characterization and biomarkers screening for visceral leishmaniasis in golden hamsters

A better understanding of the changes in metabolic molecules during visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is essential to develop new strategies for diagnosis and treatment. Previous metabolomics studies on Leishmania have increased our knowledge of leishmaniasis and its causative pathogen. As these studies were mainly carried out in vitro, to go further, we conducted this global metabolomics analysis on the serum of golden hamsters. Serum samples were detected over a time course of 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks post infection. Our results revealed that under extensively disturbed metabolomes between the infection group and controls, glycerophospholipid (GPL) metabolism was most affected over the infection time, followed by α-linoleic acid metabolism and arachidonic acid metabolism. Within GPLs, phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) were found to be significantly increased, while their enzyme-catalysed metabolites lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and lysophosphatidylethanolamine (LPE) showed no significant changes. Moreover, eight differential metabolites were selected. The ability of these metabolites to be used as a diagnostic biomarker panel was supported by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Our findings revealed that GPL metabolism might play an important role in the response of the host to Leishmania infection. The metabolism of PC and PE might be crucial in the in vivo progression of VL. The panel of eight potential biomarkers might contribute to the diagnosis of VL.