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Biochemical Markers for the Diagnosis of Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidation Diseases.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) contributes a large proportion to the body's energy needs in fasting and in situations of metabolic stress. Most tissues use energy from fatty acids, particularly the heart, skeletal muscle and the liver. In the brain, ketone bodies formed from FAO in the liver are used as the main source of energy. The mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation disorders (FAODs), which include the carnitine system defects, constitute a group of diseases with several types and subtypes and with variable clinical spectrum and prognosis, from paucisymptomatic cases to more severe affectations, with a 5% rate of sudden death in childhood, and with fasting hypoketotic hypoglycemia frequently occurring. The implementation of newborn screening programs has resulted in new challenges in diagnosis, with the detection of new phenotypes as well as carriers and false positive cases. In this article, a review of the biochemical markers used for the diagnosis of FAODs is presented. The analysis of acylcarnitines by MS/MS contributes to improving the biochemical diagnosis, both in affected patients and in newborn screening, but acylglycines, organic acids, and other metabolites are also reported. Moreover, this review recommends caution, and outlines the differences in the interpretation of the biomarkers depending on age, clinical situation and types of samples or techniques.

SUBMITTER: Ruiz-Sala P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8584803 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundThe oxidation of fatty acids in mitochondria plays an important role in energy metabolism and genetic disorders of this pathway may cause metabolic diseases. Enzyme deficiencies can block the metabolism at defined reactions in the mitochondrion and lead to accumulation of specific substrates causing severe clinical manifestations. Ten of the disorders directly affecting mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation have been well-defined, implicating episodic hypoketotic hypoglycemia provoked by catabolic stress, multiple organ failure, muscle weakness, or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Additionally, syndromes of severe maternal illness (HELLP syndrome and AFLP) have been associated with pregnancies carrying a fetus affected by fatty acid oxidation deficiencies. However, little is known about fatty acids kinetics, especially during fasting or exercise when the demand for fatty acid oxidation is increased (catabolic stress).ResultsA computational kinetic network of 64 reactions with 91 compounds and 301 parameters was constructed to study dynamic properties of mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation. Various deficiencies of acyl-CoA dehydrogenase were simulated and verified with measured concentrations of indicative metabolites of screened newborns in Middle Europe and South Australia. The simulated accumulation of specific acyl-CoAs according to the investigated enzyme deficiencies are in agreement with experimental data and findings in literature. Investigation of the dynamic properties of the fatty acid beta-oxidation reveals that the formation of acetyl-CoA - substrate for energy production - is highly impaired within the first hours of fasting corresponding to the rapid progress to coma within 1-2 hours. LCAD deficiency exhibits the highest accumulation of fatty acids along with marked increase of these substrates during catabolic stress and the lowest production rate of acetyl-CoA. These findings might confirm gestational loss to be the explanation that no human cases of LCAD deficiency have been described.ConclusionIn summary, this work provides a detailed kinetic model of mitochondrial metabolism with specific focus on fatty acid beta-oxidation to simulate and predict the dynamic response of that metabolic network in the context of human disease. Our findings offer insight into the disease process (e.g. rapid progress to coma) and might confirm new explanations (no human cases of LCAD deficiency), which can hardly be obtained from experimental data alone.

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Biochemical Markers for the Diagnosis of Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidation Diseases.

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