Ricerc@Sapienza

The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based
metabolomic approach was used as analytical methodology
to study the urine samples of chronic inflammatory rheumatic
disease (CIRD) patients. The urine samples of CIRD patients
were compared to the ones of both healthy subjects and pa-
tients with multiple sclerosis (MS), another immuno-mediated
disease. Urine samples collected from 39 CIRD patients, 25
healthy subjects, and 26 MS patients were analyzed using
1
H
NMR spectroscopy, and the NMR spectra were examined
using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA).
PLS-DA models were validated by a double cross-validation
procedure and randomization tests. Clear discriminations be-
tween CIRD patients and healthy controls (average diagnostic
accuracy 83.5 ± 1.9%) as well as between CIRD patients and
MS patients (diagnostic accuracy 81.1 ± 1.9%) were obtained.
Leucine, alanine, 3-hydroxyisobutyric acid, hippuric acid,
citric acid, 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid, and creatinine contribut-
ed to the discrimination; all of them being in a lower concen-
tration in CIRD patients as compared to controls or to MS
patients. The application of NMR metabolomics to study
these still poorly understood diseases can be useful to better
clarify the pathologic mechanisms; moreover, as a holistic
approach, it allowed the detection of, by means of anomalous
metabolic traits, the presence of other pathologies or pharmaceutical treatments not directly connected to CIRDs, giving
comprehensive information on the general health state of
individuals.