Deciphering the perturbed metabolic pathway in tuberculous meningitis and investigation of metabolites in fungal species involved in superficial mycoses using NMR spectroscopy

Abstract

newline It is an analytical technique used to investigate metabolism, involving a thorough comparison of the concentration patterns of small molecular weight metabolites and their precursors within various biological systems affected by conditions like fungal infections, CSF samples, blood serum, and tissue extracts, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Despite significant progress in genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, there is a growing need for additional evidence of biological outcomes in human diseases to enhance disease diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and understanding of disease mechanisms. Consequently, metabolomics has gained prominence in recent years and is increasingly recognized as a complementary approach to genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics in disease diagnosis, therapeutic assessment, and metabolite quantification. In this study, we utilized NMR spectroscopy to analyze cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from TBM patients to identify metabolic markers and elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying TBM. Our findings unveiled noticeable metabolic patterns in individuals with TBM in contrast to those without the condition, indicating changes in energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Additionally, we identified associations between certain metabolites and clinical indicators such as the severity of the disease, response to treatment, and neurological consequences. The combination of metabolomic data with MRI outcomes provided deeper insights into the neuroinflammatory mechanisms and tissue damage associated with TBM. These findings emphasize the potential of NMR-based CSF metabolomics in assisting with TBM diagnosis, prognosis assessment, and treatment management. Understanding the metabolic pathways and biochemical functions of fungal species like Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum relies heavily on the identification of primary metabolites. Our results unveiled unique metabolic profiles for each fungal species, indicating