Serum Metabonomics Study of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus by Rapid Resolution Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Q-TOF Mass Spectrometry

In order to investigate systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) possible disease biomarkers and disclose its pathogenesis, a rapid resolution liquid chromatography combined with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry method (RRLC-Q-TOF/MS) was used to study the sera from 17 SLE patients and 15 healthy volunteers. Supervised pattern recognition methods combined with orthogonal signal correction partial least square-discriminate analysis (OSC-PLS-DA) were chosen to process the metabolic data. A nice distinction between SLE patients and healthy control group was observed. Further, ten ions, which had a significant contribution to classification, had been selected from metabolic profiles of SLE patients. The ten ions were identified and belong to seven metabolic biomarkers. It was shown that there were abnormal metabolisms of amino acids, phospholipids and porphyrin in SLE patients. It provided a scientific basis for the monitoring and diagnosis of SLE.