1H NMR Metabonomic Approach to Understand Disease Process: Implications for Malaria and Wilson’s Disease

Small molecular weight metabolites along with other metabolic components found in different tissues and biofluids of living organism serve as reporter molecules for the response of the organism to external stressors like pathogenic invasion and disease. 1H NMR metabolic profiling of tissues and biofluids followed by multivariate analytical strategies help in identifying the significant molecules in differential response of host towards disease. The identification of such metabolites is a precursor to unraveling the metabolic pathway(s) perturbed due to the disease. We used this approach to understand the disease process of malarial parasite infection in humans. Our results from urine and sera samples showed distinct metabolic response of individuals infected with Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum. The results showed a role of lipoproteins in the serum profile of the P. falciparum infected patients. Studies on P. vivax infected patients indicated an impaired TCA cycle and fatty acid Beta-oxidation pathway. 

Along with this, an approach was made to identify the biomarker of Wilson’s disease. The serum lipoproteins showed a possibility of distinguishing Wilson’s disease from non- Wilsonian liver disease. However, the small molecular weight metabolite window failed to discriminate between these two.