Metabolic Profiling in Mice Infected with Echinococcosis
Abstract Background: Echinococcosis is a severe zoonotic parasitic disease, which seriously affects the health of the hosts. The diagnosis of echinococcosis depends on objective detection of clinical symptoms. However, the patient is often in the late stage of the disease when the symptoms appear, limiting the early diagnosis of echinococcosis. The treatment and prognosis of the patients are seriously hampered due to long-term asymptomatic latency. Metabolomics is a new discipline developed in the late 1990s. It reflects a series of biological responses in a pathophysiological process by demonstrating the changes in metabolism under the influence of internal and external factors. When the organism is invaded by pathogens, the alteration in characteristics of metabolites in cells becomes exceedingly sensitive. Here, we used a liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system-based metabolomics approach to determine the molecular mechanism of cystic echinococcosis (CE) and to develop an effective method for CE diagnosis. Methods: Eight-weeks-old female Balb/c mice were divided into normal and Echinococcus granulosus infection groups. To develop the Echinococcus granulosus infection model, mice were infected with protoscolex. Six weeks later, the abdomen of mice was obviously bulged. An LC-MS/MS system-based metabolomics approach was used for the analysis of the liver and feces to reveal the metabolic profiles of mice with echinococcosis. Results: We found that the metabolism of nucleotides, alkaloids, amino acids, amides, and organic acids in mice is closely interrelated with Echinococcus granulosus infectionConclusion: The metabolomics approach used in this study provides a reference for a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic and screening method for echinococcosis.