Dried blood spots capture a wide range of metabolic pathways and biological changes associated with exercise

Metabolomics is poised to significantly advance our ability to diagnose and characterize disease, identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and monitor a patient's response to treatment. Despite these benefits, metabolomics-based diagnostic tests have not been adapted into clinical practice primarily because metabolomics technologies, which include high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, are not conducive to point-of-care. Expanding the reach of metabolomics-based testing requires centralized technology to be more accessible.

One way to achieve this is by utilizing dried blood spots (DBS) as a diagnostic testing sample type. Their easy collection, lack of reliance on cold chain, and cost-effective storage and shipment make them the ideal sample type for diagnostic testing that requires a centralized technology. To date, few studies have investigated the ability of DBS to capture the global metabolome and track biological changes in individual subjects.

In this feasibilty study, we tested these factors by performing untargeted metabolic profiling on DBS collected from study volunteers before and after exercising. We compared our results in DBS to results in serum and plasma that have been reported in the literature.

Overall, our findings closely agreed with published studies, showing that DBS may be a viable sample type for metabolomics-based diagnostic and wellness testing.