Changes of salivary metabolomics in patients with chronic erosive gastritis

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Chronic erosive gastritis (CEG) is closely related to gastric cancer and needs early diagnosis and intervention. The invasiveness and discomfort of electronic gastroscope make it difficult to apply to the extensive screening of CEG. Therefore, a simple and noninvasive screening method is needed in clinic. Objectives The aim of this study is to screen potential biomarkers that can identify diseases from saliva samples of CEG patients using metabolomics. Methods Saliva samples from 64 CEG patients and 30 healthy volunteers were collected, and metabolomic analysis was performed using uhplc-q-tof/ms in the positive and negative ion mode. Statistical analysis was performed using univariate (student's t-test) and multivariate (orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine potential predictors in saliva of CEG patients. Results By comparing saliva samples from CEG patients and healthy volunteers, we found 45 differentially expressed metabolites, of which 37 were up-regulated and 8 were down-regulated. These differential metabolites are related to amino acid, lipid, phenylalanine metabolism, protein digestion and absorption, and mTOR signaling pathway. In the ROC analysis, the AUC values of 7 metabolites were greater than 0.8, among which the AUC values of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycoro-3-phosphodylcholine and 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycoro-3-phospholine (SOPC) were greater than 0.9. Conclusions We identified salivary metabolites related to CEG and screened out 45 potential biomarkers, 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycoro-3-phosphorylcholine and 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycoro-3-phosphorine (SOPC), which may have clinical application value.