Published online Nov 27, 2023. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i11.1237
Peer-review started: August 22, 2023
First decision: September 6, 2023
Revised: September 22, 2023
Accepted: October 23, 2023
Article in press: October 23, 2023
Published online: November 27, 2023
Processing time: 94 Days and 5.8 Hours
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus, leading to liver issues like fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer, and death. The accurate fibrosis stage identification is crucial for treatment decisions and predicting outcomes. Thus, blood markers are a source of relevant information on the staging of fibrosis, in a less invasive and representative way, compared to percutaneous biopsies.
Currently, approaches to staging fibrosis are invasive, subject to sampling errors and subjectivity between observers. In clinical routine, blood markers should be considered a relevant source of information. However, current approaches are limited to routine biochemical tests associated with clinical information, which is not very informative. Analyses based on liquid biopsy are less invasive, and blood plasma, since it circulates throughout the body, can provide information on pathologies that have not yet manifested themselves clinically, positively impacting on prognosis.
Analyze the plasmatic metabolome of CHC patients, looking for potential biomarkers to stratify these lesions.
Plasma metabolites from hepatitis C patients and 50 healthy volunteer participants were analyzed using the LTQ Mass Spectrometer. The sample and the control group were classified into Fibrosis grades was classified using the Metavir score. Liver samples were collected by percutaneous biopsy before any treatment and then analyzed histologically. The most relevant metabolites were categorized using the METLIN online metabolomics database. The molecules of interest were added to a list of candidates and subsequently fragmented in silico using the MassFrontier tool. Molecules compatible with those generated experimentally were then selected for functional analysis.
For each degree of fibrosis, six differential metabolites were identified that were able to establish an interesting grouping trend among patients with the same degree of fibrosis.
The results of this study suggest that liquid biopsy analyzes of plasma metabolites are a good source of molecular biomarkers capable of stratifying patients with CHC according to their fibrosis grade.
Some of the observed biomarkers, once validated, have the potential for application as prognostic biomarkers. This study has innovative potential regarding the detection of pre-clinical biomarkers in easily accessible plasma using minimally invasive methods.