Integrated Omics Analysis Of Sweat Reveals An Aberrant Amino Acid Metabolism Pathway In Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease

Purpose.Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada(VKH)disease is an autoimmune disease leading to visual impairment.Its pathogenic mechanisms remain poorly understood.Our purpose was to investigate the distinctive protein and metabolic profiles of sweat in patients with VKH disease.Methods.In the present study,liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was performed on 60 sweat samples(30 VKH patients and 30 normal controls)for proteomics and metabolomics respectively.Results.In total,we were able to detect 716 proteins and 175 metabolites.Among them,116 proteins(99 decreased and 17 increased)were observed to be significantly different in VKH patients when compared to controls.And 21 differentially expressed metabolites were identified in VKH patients,of which eighteen metabolites including Choline,L-Tryptophan,Betaine and L-Serine were reduced,while the rest were increased.Our multi-omics strategy revealed an important role for the amino acid metabolic pathway in the pathogenesis of VKH disease.Conclusions.Significant differences in proteins and metabolites wereidentified in the sweat of VKH patients,and to some extent,an aberrant amino acid metabolism pathway may be a pathogenic factor in the pathogenesis of VKH disease.