Metabolomics reveals LysoPC a C17:0 (LPC 17:0) as candidate biomarker for personalized medicine in morbid obesity.
Por:
Stefanini E, Marín-del Barrio S, Serrano-Marín J, Sánchez-Navés J, Alkozi HA, Pallàs M, Cascante M, Griñán-Ferré C and Franco R
Publicada:
30 mar 2026
Ahead of Print:
30 mar 2026
Resumen:
Morbid obesity represents the most severe form of obesity and is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complications. Current diagnostic approaches rely on anthropometric measures, failing to capture the metabolic heterogeneity among patients. In this study, plasma samples from 20 morbidly obese patients and 8 controls were analyzed using targeted metabolomics. Of 188 quantified metabolites, 139 passed quality control across lipid, amino acid, and acylcarnitine families. Applying a novel normalization strategy, LPC 17:0 emerged as the most consistent discriminative biomarker, achieving 78% accuracy in distinguishing patients from controls. PC O-40:1, selected as the concomitant within the phosphatidylcholine family based on statistical performance, also showed promise, notable for its abundance in heart and liver tissue and its proposed antioxidant role. The difference between predicted and actual LPC 17:0 levels correlated negatively with BMI (r?˜?-0.6), highlighting its value as a marker of obesity severity. While combining LPC 17:0 with other metabolites slightly improved classification, the metabolite alone demonstrated strong discriminative power. These findings introduce a novel biomarker for morbid obesity and support the development of personalized medicine approaches, enabling monitoring of disease progression, improved risk stratification and targeted therapeutic interventions.
Filiaciones:
Stefanini E:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Marín-del Barrio S:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Institute of Biomedicine of University of Barcelona (IBUB), University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
CIBEREHD, Network Center for Hepatic and Digestive Diseases, Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
Serrano-Marín J:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Sánchez-Navés J:
Department of Ophthalmology, Oftalmedic, I.P.O. Institute of Ophthalmology, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Alkozi HA:
Department of Optometry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
Pallàs M:
Departament de Farmacologia i Química Terapeùtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
CiberNed, Network Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
Cascante M:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Institute of Biomedicine of University of Barcelona (IBUB), University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
CIBEREHD, Network Center for Hepatic and Digestive Diseases, Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
Griñán-Ferré C:
Departament de Farmacologia i Química Terapeùtica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
CiberNed, Network Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
Franco R:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
CiberNed, Network Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Spanish National Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC) of the University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Open Access
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