Brunmair Julia, Bileck Andrea, Stimpfl Thomas, Raible Florian, Del Favero Giorgia, Meier-Menches Samuel M, Gerner Christopher
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Joint Metabolome Facility, University and Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
EPMA J. 2021 May 4;12(2):141-153. doi: 10.1007/s13167-021-00241-6. eCollection 2021 Jun.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Exposure to bioactive compounds from nutrition, pharmaceuticals, environmental contaminants or other lifestyle habits may affect the human organism. To gain insight into the effects of these influences, as well as the fundamental biochemical mechanisms behind them, individual molecular profiling seems to be a promising tool and may support the further development of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine.
We developed an assay, called metabo-tip for the analysis of sweat, collected from fingertips, using mass spectrometry-by far the most comprehensive and sensitive method for such analyses. To evaluate this assay, we exposed volunteers to various xenobiotics using standardised protocols and investigated their metabolic response.
As early as 15 min after the consumption of a cup of coffee, 50 g of dark chocolate or a serving of citrus fruits, significant changes in the sweat composition of the fingertips were observed, providing relevant information in regard to the ingested substances. This included not only health-promoting bioactive compounds but also potential hazardous substances. Furthermore, the identification of metabolites from orally ingested medications such as metamizole indicated the applicability of this assay to observe specific enzymatic processes in a personalised fashion. Remarkably, we found that the sweat composition fluctuated in a diurnal rhythm, supporting the hypothesis that the composition of sweat can be influenced by endogenous metabolic activities. This was further corroborated by the finding that histamine was significantly increased in the metabo-tip assay in individuals with allergic reactions.
Metabo-tip analysis may have a large number of practical applications due to its analytical power, non-invasive character and the potential of frequent sampling, especially regarding the individualised monitoring of specific lifestyle and influencing factors. The extraordinarily rich individualised metabolomics data provided by metabo-tip offer direct access to individual metabolic activities and will thus support predictive preventive personalised medicine.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13167-021-00241-6.
背景/目的：接触来自营养物质、药物、环境污染物或其他生活方式习惯中的生物活性化合物可能会影响人体。为了深入了解这些影响及其背后的基本生化机制，个体分子剖析似乎是一种很有前景的工具，可能会支持预测性、预防性和个性化医学的进一步发展。
我们开发了一种名为metabo-tip的检测方法，用于分析从指尖采集的汗液，采用质谱法——这是目前用于此类分析最全面、最灵敏的方法。为了评估该检测方法，我们使用标准化方案让志愿者接触各种外源性物质，并研究他们的代谢反应。
早在饮用一杯咖啡、食用50克黑巧克力或一份柑橘类水果后15分钟，就观察到指尖汗液成分发生了显著变化，提供了有关摄入物质的相关信息。这不仅包括促进健康的生物活性化合物，还包括潜在有害物质。此外，从口服药物如安乃近中鉴定出代谢物，表明该检测方法适用于以个性化方式观察特定的酶促过程。值得注意的是，我们发现汗液成分以昼夜节律波动，支持了汗液成分可受内源性代谢活动影响的假设。过敏反应个体的metabo-tip检测中组胺显著增加这一发现进一步证实了这一点。
由于其分析能力、非侵入性特点以及频繁采样的潜力，metabo-tip分析可能有大量实际应用，特别是在个性化监测特定生活方式和影响因素方面。metabo-tip提供的极其丰富的个性化代谢组学数据可直接获取个体代谢活动，因此将支持预测性、预防性和个性化医学。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s13167-021-00241-6获取的补充材料。
