Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolic Profiling of Cerebrospinal Fluid from Epileptic Dogs

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder with seizures, but diagnostic approaches in veterinary clinics remain limited. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a body fluid used for diagnosis in veterinary medicine. In this study, we explored canine epilepsy diagnostic biomarkers using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolic profiling of CSF and multivariate data analysis. Profiles for subjects with idiopathic epilepsy differed significantly from those of healthy controls and subjects with symptomatic epilepsy. Among 60 identified metabolites, the levels of 20 differed significantly among the three groups. Glutamic acid was significantly increased in idiopathic epilepsy, and some metabolites including ascorbic acid were changed in both forms of epilepsy. These findings show that metabolic profiles of CSF differ between idiopathic and symptomatic epilepsy and that metabolites including glutamic acid and ascorbic acid in CSF may be useful for diagnosis of canine epilepsy.