METABO-CARE: A metabolomics-based approach for precision medicine in intensive care units
Entity: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Principal Investigador : Jose Luis Izquierdo García
Nº of researchers: 4
Funding entity or bodies:: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Programa Retos 2019
Start-End date: 01/12/2020 - 30/11/2023
Total amount: 181.500 €
Many patients are admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in Europe because they develop failure of lung function that necessitates mechanical ventilation to support pulmonary function. One of the major causes of failure of the lungs is an inflammatory condition called Acute Lung Injury (ALI) or its more severe form Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). The social magnitude of the problem of ALI is documented by at least two pieces of information: (i) the unacceptably high death toll of ALI in Western societies; (ii) the risk of infectious pandemics that cause death by respiratory failure closely resembling ALI. There is a fundamental need to find reliable biomarkers that could provide ALI differential diagnosis, predict outcome and monitor specific therapeutic interventions. In our previous studies, we have already proved the potential of NMR-based metabolomics to predict outcome of ALI patients and also to identify the pathogen responsible for ALI. However the translation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics to a clinic environment has several limitation. While high-resolution NMR spectrometers are used daily in several research fields, their use as a routine tool in clinic is limited due to both the expensive maintenance cost and the need for highly skilled scientists to operate the spectrometer. The installation of high-resolution NMR spectrometer in a medical center also require the delimitation of a safety area to protect patients and staff from high magnetic fields. To bridge this gap between basic science and clinic use, we propose the use of benchtop NMR spectrometers. The main advantages of such equipment deal with (i) affordable purchase price, (ii) the cheap maintenance cost due to the absence of cryogenic fluids, (iii) the small size of the instruments, and (iv) the easy operation and troubleshooting of the spectrometers.
Our hypothesis is that benchtop NMR spectrometer can be used as an affordable metabolomic tool in clinic for the diagnosis and monitoring of several diseases. These new approaches will be evaluated in the specific context of clinical samples from ICU patients and if their implication is demonstrated, could have great clinical relevance.
The specific objectives of the project are:
(i) To identify new metabolic biomarkers that can be used for specific diagnosis and timely assessment of ALI in sepsis patients.
(ii) To validate the identified biomarkers of ALI induced by sepsis using a low field NMR-based metabolomic approach.
(iii) To identify new metabolic biomarkers that can be used for specific diagnosis and timely assessment of ALI in Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) patients.
(iv) To validate the identified early biomarkers of ALI in CAP patients using a low field NMR-based metabolomic approach.
(v) To identify new metabolic biomarkers that can be used for specific diagnosis and timely assessment of ALI in nosocomial pneumonia (NP) patients.
(vi) To validate the identified early biomarkers of ALI in NP patients using a low field NMR-based metabolomic approach.
(vii) To correlate metabolomic data with physiomic data.
(viii) To develop automatic software tool for the analysis of low field NMR spectra.