Non-targeted metabolomics reveals the metabolic profiles of psoriasis patients before and after ixekizumab treatment
Whether in positive ion or negative ion mode, the IXE group was invariably between the CON and PSO groups, which indicated that ixekizumab treatment shifted the metabolic profiles of psoriasis patients toward a normal status (Fig. S1a, b). To better investigate the abnormal metabolites causing the different metabolic profiles, OPLS-DA was used for subsequent PSO/CON and IXE/PSO paired comparisons (Fig. S1c-f).
The constructed multivariate models, in conjunction with univariate statistical analysis, revealed 37 differential metabolites in the PSO/CON comparison (Fig. 2), and 31 differential metabolites were accurately identified in the IXE/PSO comparison (Fig. S2). In total, 43 metabolites contributed most to the differentiation of the groups in study cohort 1, including lysophospholipids (LPLs), free fatty acids (FFAs), dicarboxylic acids (DAs) and acylcarnitines (Table S1).
ROC curve analysis is generally considered to be the gold standard for assessment of biomarker performance. The area under the curve (AUC) values of the ROC curves of the 37 differential metabolites in the PSO/CON comparison were higher than 0.7, indicating that the metabolites can be regarded as potential biomarkers for psoriasis (Fig. S3) (Table S2). Notably, the AUC values of all identified LPLs except lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) (20:4) were higher than 0.7 in both the PSO/CON comparison and the IXE/PSO comparison, which indicated that these identified LPLs may serve as predictive markers of the efficacy of IL-17A mAb treatment in psoriasis (Fig. S3) (Table S2).
IL-17A mAb treatment ameliorated dysregulated lipid metabolism in psoriasis patients
As visualized in the heat map, LPLs and FFAs were upregulated in psoriasis patients compared with healthy people, while DAs and acylcarnitines were altered in the opposite way (Fig. 3a). Lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs), lysophosphatidylinositols (LPIs) and LPAs were significantly upregulated in the psoriasis patients. It has been demonstrated that circulating LPCs and LPAs have potent pro-inflammatory effects and are upregulated in the several inflammation-associated diseases, including psoriasis[30, 31]. Moreover, the presence of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids on LPCs strengthens the ability of LPCs to evoke an inflammatory response[32]. In this study, LPC (22:5) and LPC (20:3) with n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids had the highest fold-change values among all the identified LPCs (Fig. 3b). In accordance with the increased levels of LPCs, the levels of glycerophosphocholine (GPC), a downstream product of LPCs, were also dramatically upregulated in psoriasis patients (Fig. 3b). As LPCs can be produced by phosphatidylcholines, the decreased levels of phosphatidylcholines further proved that the phospholipid pathway was disrupted. In addition to LPCs, members of another group of LPLs, LPIs, were also upregulated in psoriasis patients (Fig. 3b). Although LPIs are present at relatively lower concentrations in human blood than LPCs, they have abundant biological functions, including pro-inflammatory functions[33].
In Land’s cycle, FFAs can be produced from LPLs by phospholipase A [34]. As expected, FFA levels were higher in the serum of psoriasis patients than in that of healthy individuals. In contrast to FFAs, DAs and acylcarnitines exhibited lower levels in psoriasis patients than in healthy individuals (Fig. 3b). Since DAs are the intermediates in the ω-oxidation pathway and since acylcarnitines are the “vehicles” in the β-oxidation process, the decreases in the levels of these two metabolites indicated potential dysfunction of fatty acid decomposition that in turn resulted in elevations in the blood levels of FFAs. Accumulation of FFAs has been reported to constantly sensitize dendritic cells to amplify Th1/Th17 immune responses [35]; this mechanism was supported by the inverse correlation between DA levels and PASI scores (Fig. 3c).
After ixekizumab treatment, the most obvious metabolic changes in psoriasis patients were decreased LPCs and GPC levels. In particular, the levels of the aforementioned inflammation-associated LPC (20:3) and LPC (22:5) were drastically decreased in the treated patients. The PC levels increased synchronously with the decrease in LPC levels, and the PC and LPC levels both returned to normal. The downstream product of LPCs, GPC, showed the strongest decreasing trend among all the differential metabolites, which could be explained by the decreased in LPC levels. The changes in the average levels of acylcarnitines and FFAs were ameliorated at the same time, although the amelioration was not statistically significant. However, DAs were upregulated to normal levels in treated patients. These results indicate that treatment with IL-17A mAbs might not only ameliorate psoriasis lesions, but also restore the dysregulated lipid metabolism to normal levels in psoriasis patients.
Common and specific metabolites in psoriasis patients with or without cardiovascular comorbidities
The results of metabolomic analysis on the study cohort 2 largely conformed to the previous observations in study cohort 1. In sPLS-DA, the PC group was between the PSO and CV groups, and apparent separation was achieved among the four groups (Fig. 4a). Twenty-five of the differential metabolites identified in the PSO/CON comparison in study cohort 1 were demonstrated to also be significantly differentially abundant in the PSO, CV and PC groups compared to the CON group in study cohort 2 (Fig. 4b, c). Although all identified LPLs were upregulated in the PSO and PC groups of the two study cohorts, LPC levels were even higher in the PC group than in the PSO group (Fig. 4d). In study cohort 2, the aforementioned LPC (22:5), LPC (20:3) and GPC were not only drastically upregulated in the PSO group, but also upregulated in the PC group. Although all the identified LPIs were upregulated in the PSO groups of the two study cohorts, psoriasis patients with coronary heart disease had significantly lower levels than those without such diseases (Fig. 4d).
The trends of DA dysregulation in the patients of study cohort 2 were also consistent with the results for study cohort 1, but there were no significant differences between the PSO and PC groups (Fig. 4c, d). Considering that DA levels were inversely correlated with PASI scores in study cohort 1, this outcome was unexpected. The results of metabolic profiling for study cohort 1 demonstrated that the levels of acylcarnitines, which are critical carriers in fatty acid oxidation, were decreased in psoriasis patients. In study cohort 2, although the levels of medium-chain acylcarnitines were decreased in all patients, no significant differences were found between the PSO and PC groups; the results were consistent with the results obtained for DAs.
Although only six individuals in the PC group were treated with ixekizumab, the changes in lipid metabolism conformed to the previous observations in study cohort 1. Ixekizumab treatment restored LPLs, DAs and acylcarnitines to normal levels in psoriasis patients with coronary heart disease (Fig. 5). This result indicates that IL-17A mAbs might restore dysregulated lipid metabolism to normal levels in psoriasis patients with coronary heart disease.