To find potential serum biomarkers for upper tract urothelial carcinomas (UTUCs) via (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR)-based metabolomic analysis. Serum specimens collected from 34 healthy individuals and 39 patients with UTUCs were subjected to (1)H NMR-based metabolomic analysis. Principal component and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analyses were used to analyse the data. Compared with serum samples from healthy subjects, samples from UTUC patients showed elevated levels of lactate and creatinine as well as decreased levels of glucose, glutamine and taurine. Serum low-density lipoprotein/very low-density lipoprotein, valine and glycoprotein levels showed decreasing trends whereas serum polyunsaturated fatty acids and 3,7-dimethyluric acid level presented increasing trends in UTUC patients. (1)H NMR-based metabolomic analysis of serum enhances the current understanding of the mechanisms involved in UTUC development. The present analysis may be a valuable tool for UTUC detection.
Keywords: Nuclear magnetic resonance; OPLS-DA; PCA; Serum; Upper tract urothelial carcinomas.