Quantitative metabolomics for investigating the value of polyamines in the early diagnosis and therapy of colorectal cancer

As an important biomarker for cancer, polyamine levels in body fluid could be employed for monitoring the colorectal cancer (CRC), however the role of polyamines in the development and therapeutics phases of CRC remains uncertain. In this paper, the relationship between polyamines and CRC development and therapeutics had been investigated by the study of changes in plasma polyamine levels during the precancerous, developmental and treatment phases of CRC. After inducing CRC in Wistar rats by intraperitoneal injection of 1, 2-dimethylhydrazine, the animals were given a traditional Chinese medicine, Aidi injections. Firstly, the polyamine levels in the plasma of CRC, healthy and medicated rats were measured by UHPLC-MS/MS assay. In addition, Lasso regression analysis was used for screening and confirming the key markers, which can be employed for distinguishing the healthy and CRC rats as well as the CRC and medication rats. The results obtained showed that polyamine metabolism had been disrupted by CRC but returned to normal levels following Aidi injections and, in particular, putrescine and agmatine were closely correlated with CRC. Our results demonstrate the potential value of plasma polyamine metabolic profiling during the early diagnosis and medical treatment of CRC. Also, the integrated method of polyamine metabolite target analysis and lasso regression analysis can be applied in metabolomics for seeking the differential metabolites.