Metabotyping of obese and overweight children towards early prevention and prognosis of metabolic diseases
De Spiegeleer Margot1, Van Meulebroek Lieven1, De Schepper Jean2,3, Gies Inge3, Baeck Nele4, Degraeuwe Jelle5, Deman Sofie6, Casteels Kristina7, Vanhaecke Lynn1,8
The alarming trend of obesity and its emergent accompaniment of insulin resistance (IR) already rising years before pubertal onset, deserves our greatest awareness to hinder long-term (cardio)metabolic complications impacting healthy growth and functionality. At current, internationally agreed standards for (ab)normal insulin sensitivity during childhood are lacking, hence the urging quest for diagnostic, prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers for metabolic diseases in pre-pubertal youth. Metabolomics reveals a comprehensive metabolic signature compared to reluctant blood analyses. In this regard, attention is emerging towards faecal fingerprinting, in that it unravels the symbiotic interplay between the host, diet and microbiota characterizing responsive metabolic discrepancies regarding (patho)physiology. Therefore, this research provisions a holistic top-down approach mapping the faecal metabolome of overweight and obese children as to stratify the different metabotypes in parallel with the correlation to clinical parameters and laboratory findings. Recent advances in the era of ambient ionization HRMS introduced the Rapid Evaporative Ionization MS which significantly reduces time (<10s) and workload (minimal sample preparation), whereby enabling simple routine analysis of the ‘intact’ faecal metabolome. This multi-centric study will primarily focus on elucidating discriminative metabolites in the pediatric cohorts. Secondly, the candidate biomarkers’ predictive and prognostic value towards the development and progression of IR and concurrent metabolic disorders will be qualified during a longitudinal follow-up period of 2 years. Within the worldwide epidemic of obesity, this study offers compelling perspectives in providing hallmarks of phenotypes at high risk for the development of metabolic diseases allowing its early prevention and progression by means of patient-centered intervention.
Keywords: Metabolomics, lipidomics, faecal fingerprinting, childhood obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic diseases.
1Ghent University,Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Laboratory of Chemical Analysis, Salisburylaan 133, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium – Margot.DeSpiegeleer@UGent.be
2Ghent University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
3UZ Brussel, Grote Prefab, 1090 Jette, Belgium
4AZ Jan Palfijn, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Henri Dunantlaan 5, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
5Maria Middelares, Buitenring Sint-Denijs 30, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
6AZ Sint-Lucas, Groenebriel 1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
7UZ Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
8Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University, Belfast, United Kingdom
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