Metabolic fingerprint of patients showing responsiveness to treatment of septic shock in intensive care unit

Objective An early metabolic signature associated with the responsiveness to treatment can be useful in the better management of septic shock patients. This would help clinicians in designing personalized treatment protocols for patients showing non-responsiveness to treatment. Methods We analyzed the serum on Day 1 ( n = 60), Day 3 ( n = 47), and Day 5 ( n = 26) of patients with septic shock under treatment using NMR-based metabolomics. Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was performed to generate the list of metabolites that can be identified as potential disease biomarkers having statistical significance (that is, metabolites that had a VIP score > 1, and p value < 0.05, False discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05). Results Common significant metabolites amongst the three time points were obtained that distinguished the patients being responsive (R) and non-responsive (NR) to treatments, namely 3 hydroxybutyrate, lactate, and phenylalanine which were lower, whereas glutamate and choline higher in patients showing responsiveness. Discussion The study gave these metabolic signatures identifying patients’ responsiveness to treatment. The results of the study will aid in the development of targeted therapy for ICU patients.