Abstract
Chronic cortisol excess induces several alterations on protein, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism resembling those found in the metabolic syndrome. However, patients exposed to prolonged high levels of cortisol in Cushing syndrome (CS) present exceeding cardiometabolic alterations not reflected by conventional biomarkers. Using 3 ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) platforms, we aimed to characterise the serum metabolome of 25 patients with active endogenous CS and 25 control subjects matched by propensity score (sex, BMI, diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2D), high blood pressure (HBP) and dyslipidaemia) to search for potential disease-specific biomarkers and pathways associated to the clinical comorbidities. A total of 93 metabolites were significantly altered in patients with CS. Increased levels of sulfur amino acids (AA), triacylglycerols, glycerophospholipids, ceramides and cholesteryl esters were observed. Contrarily, concentrations of essential and non-essential AA, polyunsaturated fatty acids, conjugated bile acids and second messenger glycerolipids were decreased. Twenty-four-hour urinary free cortisol (24h-UFC) independently determined the concentration of 21 lipids and 4 AA. A metabolic signature composed by 10 AA and 10 lipid metabolites presented an AUC-ROC of 95% for the classification of CS patients. Through differential network analysis, 152 aberrant associations between metabolites involved in the Lands cycle and Kennedy pathway were identified. Our data indicates that chronic hypercortisolemia confers a unique lipidomic signature and several alterations in numerous AA even when compared to patients with similar metabolic comorbidities providing novel insights of the increased cardiometabolic burden of CS.
Key messages
• Cortisol excess induces metabolic alterations beyond conventional biomarkers.
• The hypercortisolism extent determines the concentration of 21 lipids and 5 aa.
• Cortisol excess confers a unique metabolic signature of 20 metabolites.
• Kennedy and Lands cycle are profoundly disturbed by cortisol excess.
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Data availability
All data, materials and software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. All metabolomic data generated and analysed during this study is included in the present manuscript and as supplementary spreadsheets material in the initial submission (Additional File 2). The clinical dataset of the participants included in the study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Codes employed in R (programming language) for the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Arturo Vega-Beyhart sincerely acknowledges the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) for the scholarship granted to pursue his doctorate at the University of Barcelona.
Funding
This work was supported by 2 grants of the Carlos III Health Institute of MINECO, Spain (FIS PI1500859 and PIE14/00031).
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Conceptualization: Felicia A Hanzu, Adriana Pané, Ramon Gomis, Gemma Rojo, Arturo Vega-Beyhart
Data: Felicia A Hanzu, Arturo Vega-Beyhart, Adriana Pané, Guillermo García-Eguren, Oriol Giró, Laura Boswell, Gloria Aranda, Vanesa Flores, Francesc Carmona, Joaquim Enseñat, Oscar Vidal, Mireia Mora, Irene Halperin, Gemma Rojo
Formal analysis: Felicia A Hanzu, Arturo Vega-Beyhart, Marta Iruarrizaga, Ting Hu, Guillermo García-Eguren, Oriol Giró, Gregori Casals
Funding acquisition: Felicia A Hanzu, Gemma Rojo, Ramon Gomis
Investigation: All authors participated
Supervision: Felicia A Hanzu
Writing, review and editing: All authors participated
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The present study followed international and national regulations including the Declaration of Helsinki and national notes for guidance on Good Clinical Practice CPMP/ICH/135/95. The Institutional Research and Ethics Committee at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona approved the present study (Comité de Ética de la Investigación con medicamentos del Hospital Clínic de Barcelona). The Institutional Research and Ethics Committee at Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga approved the present study (Comité de Ética de la Investigación Provincial de Málaga).
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Vega-Beyhart, A., Iruarrizaga, M., Pané, A. et al. Endogenous cortisol excess confers a unique lipid signature and metabolic network. J Mol Med 99, 1085–1099 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-021-02076-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-021-02076-0