Metabolomic Profiling Reveals Biomarkers in Coronary Heart Disease Comorbidity.

Background and Aims: Coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension (HTN), depression (Dep), and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are often comorbid, resulting in an exacerbated patient condition and worsened prognosis. A lack of systematic metabolomic studies on comorbidities of CHD remains. Therefore, comprehensive metabolomic-based evaluation of comorbidities of CHD is necessary. Methods and Results: In the current study, 169 healthy subjects, 149 CHD subjects, 107 CHD + HTN subjects, 126 CHD + Dep subjects, and 58 CHD + T2DM subjects were recruited. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used for metabolite determination, and multivariate statistical analysis was conducted to identify metabolites that are differentially expressed with the comorbidities of CHD. There were 9, 16, 14, and 10 metabolites identified in the healthy and CHD group, the CHD and CHD + HTN group, the CHD and CHD + Dep group, and the CHD and CHD + T2DM group, respectively. Six metabolic pathways were affected, involving starch and sucrose metabolism; fructose and mannose metabolism; citrate cycle; alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism; fatty acid biosynthesis; and glycolysis. Conclusion: Our study has systematically elucidated the metabolic changes underlying the comorbidities of CHD, thereby providing insight into the mechanisms associated with these alterations.