Department of General, Endocrine and Transplant Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Aug 18;14:1199291. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1199291. eCollection 2023.
Amino acids (AAs) play important physiological roles in living cells. Some amino acid changes in blood are specific for autoimmune disorders, and some are specific for thyroid cancer. The aims of this study were to profile AA metabolites in the serum of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC0) without Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and patients with PTC with HT (PTC1) and predict whether AA metabolites are associated with thyroid disease, thyroid hormone and thyroid autoantibodies.
A total of 95 serum samples were collected, including 28 healthy controls (HCs), 28 PTC0 patients and 39 PTC1 patients. Serum samples were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-triple stage quadrupole-mass spectrometry (HPLC-TSQ-MS), and twenty-one amino acids (AAs) were detected.
The serum concentration of glutamic acid was significantly elevated in PTC1 patients compared with PTC0 patients. Lysine was the second amino acid that differentiated these two groups of PTC patients. In addition, the serum concentrations of glycine, alanine and tyrosine were significantly reduced in both PTC patient groups compared to the HC group. These AAs were also correlated with thyroid hormones and antibodies. Five amino acid markers, namely, glycine, tyrosine, glutamic acid, glutamine and arginine, separated/distinguished PTC0 patients from healthy subjects, and eight AA markers, the same AAs as above without arginine but with alanine, leucine, valine and histidine, separated/distinguished PTC1 patients from healthy subjects based on ROC analysis.
Compared with the HCs, changes in AAs in PTC0 and PTC1 patients showed similar patterns, suggesting the possibility of a common pathophysiological basis, which confirms preliminary research that PTC is significantly associated with pathologically confirmed HT. We found two AAs, lysine and alanine, that can perform diagnostic functions in distinguishing PTC1 from PTC0.
氨基酸（AAs）在活细胞中发挥重要的生理作用。血液中某些氨基酸的变化是自身免疫性疾病特有的，而某些则是甲状腺癌特有的。本研究旨在分析无桥本甲状腺炎（HT）的甲状腺乳头状癌（PTC0）患者和有 HT 的甲状腺乳头状癌（PTC1）患者血清中的 AA 代谢物，并预测 AA 代谢物是否与甲状腺疾病、甲状腺激素和甲状腺自身抗体有关。
共收集 95 例血清样本，包括 28 例健康对照（HC）、28 例 PTC0 患者和 39 例 PTC1 患者。采用高效液相色谱-三重四极杆质谱联用（HPLC-TSQ-MS）分析血清样本，共检测到 21 种氨基酸（AAs）。
与 PTC0 患者相比，PTC1 患者血清谷氨酸浓度显著升高。赖氨酸是区分这两组 PTC 患者的第二种氨基酸。此外，与 HC 组相比，两组 PTC 患者的血清甘氨酸、丙氨酸和酪氨酸浓度均显著降低。这些 AA 也与甲状腺激素和抗体有关。五种氨基酸标志物，即甘氨酸、酪氨酸、谷氨酸、谷氨酰胺和精氨酸，可将 PTC0 患者与健康受试者区分开来，而基于 ROC 分析，八种 AA 标志物，即上述除精氨酸外的氨基酸，加上丙氨酸、亮氨酸、缬氨酸和组氨酸，可将 PTC1 患者与健康受试者区分开来。
与 HC 相比，PTC0 和 PTC1 患者 AA 的变化表现出相似的模式，提示存在共同的病理生理基础的可能性，这证实了先前的研究结果，即 PTC 与经病理证实的 HT 显著相关。我们发现两种氨基酸，赖氨酸和丙氨酸，可以用于区分 PTC1 和 PTC0。
