A primary research on male patients diagnosed as acute brucellosis with untargeted metabolomics technique

Abstract Background Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonotic disease through the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products, inhalation of infected aerosolized particles, and direct or indirect contact with infected animals. A timely and accurate diagnosis is key to the clinical management of brucellosis. Method The study included 8 male brucellosis patients and 8 control subjects. The serum samples were analyzed using Ultra performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry ( UPLC- MS/MS ). The structural identification of these different metabolites was performed by comparing the exact mass data, retention time, and corresponding MS/MS fragments with those of mzCloud, mzVault and MassList database. We applied univariate analysis to calculate the statistical significance.The metabolites with VIP > 1 and P-value < 0.05 and fold change(FC) ≥ 2 or FC ≤ 0.5 were considered to be differential metabolites. Results 25 different metabolites were identified. 6 metabolites were down-regulated, and 19 metabolites were up-regulated. Different metabolites identified in positive ionizationmodewereL-Kynurenine, (3,4-Dimethoxyphenyl) acetic acid, D- Sphingosine, D-(+)-Proline, 2-Amino-1,3-octadecanediol, Kahweol, 2- Hydroxycinnamic acid, Kynurenic acid, 5-(tert-butyl)-2- methyl-N-(4-nitrophenyl) – 3-furamide, 2-chloro-6-(4- methoxypheno xy)benzonitrile, and 1,4- dihydroxyheptadec =-16-en-2-yl acetate; Different metabolites identified in negative ionization mode were Lignoceric acid, Pentacosanoic acid, Xanthine, L-Phenylalanine, D-(+)-Tryptophan, Oleoyl-L-α-lysophosphatidic acid, γ- Aminobutyric acid, L- Glutamic acid, Citric acid, 2-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)-3 -(1,3- benzodioxol − 5-yl) acrylonitrile, Perfluorooctanoic acid, 4-Hexylresorcinol, Sorbitan monopalmitate, and Deoxycholic acid. Conclusion There were existing the metabolic changes of male patients diagnosised as acute brucellosis, which were involved in tryptophan metabolism, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism,as well as biosynt hesis and metabolism of amino acids .