Interpretation of the literature: metabolomics facilitates changes in intestinal and liver metabolites or new findings that can induce liver cancer

Title of the article: Integrative metabolomic characterisation identifies altered portal vein serum metabolome contributing to human hepatocellular carcinoma
Publication Journal: Gut

Publication Time: August 2021

Impact Factor: 23.
059

Cooperative Client: Chinese University of Hong

Kong

Cell carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with a 5-year survival rate of only 50%-70%
.
Due to the lack of early diagnostic markers, most HCC patients are often diagnosed at an advanced stage with poor prognosis
.
Therefore, further understanding of possible etiologies and new treatments are urgently needed to improve the prognosis of HCC patients
.


In August 2021, Professor Yu Jun of the Chinese University of Hong Kong published another new work in Gut (IF=23.
06).
This study carried out a comprehensive metabolomic analysis of metabolite changes in portal blood, and compared them with the livers of HCC patients and healthy liver donors.
Metabolite changes in tissue and fecal samples were compared, and changes in intestinal and hepatic metabolites were found to induce liver cancer
.


01 Research Background More and more studies have shown that metabolites play an important role in the formation of HCC
.
However, due to the poor accessibility of portal blood, most studies are limited by the use of peripheral blood, which may not reflect changes in portal blood and liver
.
Therefore, this study performed a detailed metabolomic analysis of HCC patients and healthy controls to evaluate potential etiologies and novel therapeutic targets in HCC patients
.


02Technical route
Fig.
1
A 52 liver cancer (HCC) patients and 50 healthy individuals served as a discovery cohort, and another 100-person cohort (50 HCC patients and 50 controls) served as a validation cohort
.

B Various clinical samples were obtained from liver cancer patients and healthy controls
.

C Perform metabolomic differential metabolite screening and analysis based on untargeted metabolomics of serum, tissue and stool samples
.

D in vitro biological function verification
.

 
03 Experimental Results
We performed an in-depth comprehensive metabolomic analysis of portal and central venous serum, liver tissue, and stool samples to identify HCC-related metabolites compared with healthy subjects
.
Overall, 2799 metabolites were annotated in all collected samples, and significant alterations in the metabolome were observed in HCC patients
.
The authors compared the portal and central vein serum metabolic profiles of HCC patients and healthy controls and found that 56 metabolites were significantly elevated in the portal vein of HCC patients (Fig.
2)
.
Fig .
2 We
further compared metabolite alterations in tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues in HCC patients and healthy controls
.
A total of 116 metabolites were significantly altered in tumor tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues and normal liver tissues (Fig.
3)
.

Fig.
3
The increased pathogenic metabolites of DL-3-phenyllactate, L-tryptophan, glycocholic acid and 1-methylnicotinamide in portal vein serum and liver tissue of patients with HCC are associated with impaired liver function and prognosis bad related
.
The levels of linoleic acid and phenol in the portal vein and feces of HCC patients were significantly reduced, and both of them could significantly inhibit the proliferation of HCC cells, indicating that they have an inhibitory effect on the growth of HCC cells
.


04 Summary
The researchers revealed metabolic alterations in HCC patients by comprehensive metabolomic analysis of serum, liver tissue, and fecal metabolites
.
The study identified increased and decreased metabolites in the portal vein, suggesting that they play a key role in HCC development
.

Article/Aqu Metabolomics