Metabolomic profiling suggests systemic signatures of premature aging induced by Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome

Abstract

Introduction: Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is an extremely rare genetic disorder. HGPS children present a high incidence of cardiovascular complications along with altered metabolic processes and an accelerated aging process. No metabolic biomarker is known and the mechanisms underlying premature aging are not fully understood.

Objectives: The present work aims to evaluate the metabolic alterations in HGPS using high resolution mass spectrometry.

Methods: The present study analyzed plasma from six HGPS patients of both sexes (7.7 ± 1.4 years old; mean ± SD) and eight controls (8.6 ± 2.3 years old) by LC-MS/MS in high-resolution non-targeted metabolomics (Q-Exactive Plus). Targeted metabolomics was used to validate some of the metabolites identified by the non-targeted method in a triple quadrupole (TSQ-Quantiva).

Results: We found several endogenous metabolites with statistical differences between control and HGPS children. Multivariate statistical analysis showed a clear separation between groups. Potential novel metabolic biomarkers were identified using the multivariate area under ROC curve (AUROC) based analysis, showing an AUC value higher than 0.80 using only two metabolites, and tending to 1.00 when increasing the number of metabolites in the AUROC model. Taken together, changed metabolic pathways involve sphingolipids, amino acids, and oxidation of fatty acids, among others.

Conclusion: Our data show significant alterations in cellular energy use and availability, in signal transduction, and lipid metabolites, adding new insights on metabolic alterations associated with premature aging and suggesting novel putative biomarkers.

Keywords: Biomarkers; HGPS; Lamin; Metabolic profiling; Metabolomics; Premature aging.