Metabolic fingerprinting for diagnosis of fibromyalgia and other rheumatologic disorders (2018) Hackshaw et al.

Cheshire

Cheshire

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Diagnosis and treatment of Fibromyalgia (FM) remains a challenge owing to the lack of reliable biomarkers. Our objective was to develop a rapid biomarker-based method for diagnosing FM by using vibrational spectroscopy to differentiate patients with FM from those with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Osteoarthritis (OA) or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), and to identify metabolites associated with these differences.

Blood samples were collected from patients with a diagnosis of FM (n=50), RA (n=29), OA (n=19), or SLE (n=23). Bloodspot samples were prepared, and spectra collected with portable FT-IR and FT-Raman microspectroscopy and subjected to metabolomics analysis by ultra-HPLC (uHPLC), coupled to a photodiode array (PDA) and tandem MS/MS. Unique IR and Raman spectral signatures were identified by pattern recognition analysis and clustered all study participants into classes (FM, RA and SLE) with no misclassifications (p < 0.05, and interclass distances > 2.5).

Furthermore, the spectra correlated (R= 0.95 and 0.83 for IR and Raman, respectively) with FM pain severity measured with fibromyalgia impact questionnaire revised version (FIQR) assessments. Protein backbones and pyridine-carboxylic acids dominated this discrimination and might serve as biomarkers for syndromes such as FM. uHPLC-PDA-MS/MS provided insights into metabolites significantly differing among the disease groups, not only in molecular m/z+ and m/z- values but also in UV-vis chromatograms.

We conclude that vibrational spectroscopy may provide a reliable diagnostic test for differentiating FM from other disorders and for establishing serologic biomarkers of FM-associated pain.
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(Paragraph breaks are mine)

Open access: http://www.jbc.org/content/early/2018/12/06/jbc.RA118.005816.long
 
Very interesting! Could they be holding back the identity of specifics because of a possible patent on a diagnostic test kit in the future? Or too soon for that...probably.
 
From the discussion section of the paper:

"This study assessed the feasibility of vibrational spectroscopy to differentiate individuals with FM from those with several other rheumatic conditions including RA, SLE, and OA.

In addition, we wanted to determine if various degrees of severity of FM were biochemically distinguishable from each other using a novel means of rapid detection. Advantages of such a methodology, if developed and honed to reproducibility, would be a capability for identifying specific treatment subsets for FM as well as identifying new targets as differentiated from each other metabolically by spectroscopy (UV-vis, MS, and vibrational).

The results of the study found a unique Raman spectral signature that clustered all subjects into classes (FM, RA, and SLE) with no misclassifications. The discriminating power was dominated by vibrations of the backbone in proteins and nucleic acids, and also indicated mineral differences in blood as biomarker."

Does anyone know anything about vibrational spectroscopy? Is this a real thing?

The methods section seems kinda complicated.
 
I don't have any more information, and can't answer the question asked by @Snowdrop - but I thought I'd post a link to a news article about this paper just in it has any helpful information.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190318084127.htm

I thought this was a good sign (so many researchers seem to want to skip this step):
Rodriguez-Saona said for the next study he'd like to examine 150 to 200 subjects per disease group to see if the findings of this research are replicable in a larger, more-diverse population.
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I have two different friends with a Fibromyalgia diagnosis. I'd be interested in whether this study looks promising before I pass on the news to them.
 
article in Ohio State University news
Experimental blood test accurately spots fibromyalgia
Study finds unique ‘molecular signature’ for often-misdiagnosed disease
For the first time, researchers have evidence that fibromyalgia can be reliably detected in blood samples – work they hope will pave the way for a simple, fast diagnosis.

In a study that appears in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers from The Ohio State University report success in identifying biomarkers of fibromyalgia and differentiating it from a handful of other related diseases.

The discovery could be an important turning point in care of patients with a disease that is frequently misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, leaving them without proper care and advice on managing their chronic pain and fatigue, said lead researcher Kevin Hackshaw, an associate professor in Ohio State’s College of Medicine and a rheumatologist at the university’s Wexner Medical Center.

Identification of biomarkers of the disease – a “metabolic fingerprint” like that discovered in the new study – could also open up the possibility of targeted treatments, he said.
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https://news.osu.edu/experimental-b...Nqb4CBlYYKx8cShnorR8ihprQv_WmrbJ95vaGqP341VBY
 
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