Metabolomic characteristics of hand-foot-mouth disease facilitate pathogeny discovery and diagnosis.

Abstract

BACKGROUND\nHand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is a significant concern on public health especially in Asia-Pacific countries. Its diagnosis mainly depends on clinical symptoms, easy to miss the source of infection isolation and best treatment period. This research aims to provide a complementary tool for its early clinical diagnosis and predict the possibility of complications.\n\n\nMETHODS\nThe serum samples of 39 HFMD children and 36 healthy children (HC) were collected for clinical testing and 1 H-NMR spectroscopy. Metabolomic analyses were performed to obtain the metabolic differences between each other and to speculate on the pathogenesis.\n\n\nRESULTS\nAccording to the severity, 39 children were divided into severe cases (SC) and mild cases (MC). SC demonstratated more obvious inflammatory response, but no metabolic difference was observed between them. The metabolic differences between HFMD and HC were noticable, in which 10 differential metabolites were screened out as the potential biomarkers of HFMD, and 7 disturbed metabolic pathways responsible for HFMD were mainly affected by inflammation, impaired intestinal absorptive function, and immune response.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nOur results will provide a complementary tool for the early diagnosis of HFMD and potential ideas for the later treatment.