NMR spectroscopy based metabolic profiling of urine and serum for investigation of physiological perturbations during radiation sickness

Radiation accidents are rare events that induce radiation syndrome, a complex pathology which is difficult to treat. In medical management of radiation victims, life threatening damage to different physiological systems should be taken into consideration. The present study was proposed to identify metabolic and physiological perturbations in biofluids of mice during different phases of radiation sickness using ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy and pattern recognition (PR) technique. The ¹H NMR spectra of the biofluids collected from mice irradiated with 5 Gray (Gy) at different time points during radiation sickness were analysed visually and by principal components analysis. Urine and serum spectral profile clearly showed altered metabolic profiles during different phases of radiation sickness. Increased concentration of urine metabolites viz. citrate, α ketoglutarate, succinate, hippurate, and trimethylamine during prodromal and clinical manifestation phase of radiation sickness shows altered gut microflora and energy metabolism. On the other hand, serum nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra reflected changes associated with lipid, energy and membrane metabolism during radiation sickness. The metabonomic time trajectory based on PR analysis of ¹H NMR spectra of urine illustrates clear separation of irradiated mice group at different time points from pre dose. The difference in NMR spectral profiles depicts the pathophysiological changes and metabolic disturbances observed during different phases of radiation sickness, that in turn, demonstrate involvement of multiple organ dysfunction. This could further be useful in development of multiparametric approach for better evaluation of radiation damage as well as for medical management during radiation sickness.