PR001295 (Project)

Description:Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne +ssRNA virus that can cause abnormal development in human fetal central neuron system and even lead to stillbirth. Despite the popularity of studies in this area recently, there is currently still no sufficient treatment for it. Knowledge on how ZIKV infection impact human metabolisms is still lacking. Untargeted metabolomics can profile the overall change in metabolites after infection, thus provide hypothesis for specific investigations. We here performed a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR)-based untargeted case-control metabolomics study on urine of ZIKV-infected pregnant women. We collected samples monthly from the first trimester till up to 6 months of ZIKV-infected and non-infected individuals and modelled the longitudinal data. We identified 3-aminoisobutyrate and trigonelline with significantly higher levels in the ZIKV-infected patients, while 11 metabolites (fucose, 2-hydroxyglutarate, N-acetyl-glutamine, dimethylamine, 4-hydroxyphenethyl alcohol, creatinine, lactate, threonine, histidine, pseudouridine, and 1-methylnicotinamide) had significantly lower levels. We also identified 2 metabolites, including glucose and 1-methylnicotinamide, where the trends over time of the intensity levels between the two groups were significantly different. These metabolites suggested further study on tryptophan, NAD+, pyrimidine, and glucose metabolisms. These metabolomic changes may lead us to a better understanding of mechanisms that cause poor fetal outcomes as well as effects of virus infection on human pregnancy.