An NMR- and MS-based metabonomic investigation of saliva metabolic changes in feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions (FORL)-diseased cats

The feline odontoclastic resorptive lesion (FORL) is a common oral problem in cats. The disease has increased steadily since the domestication of cats and etiology of this disease has not been fully determined although several theories have been proposed. Feeding practices, vaccination, and neutering programs have all been suspected to be associated with FORL. The aim of the current study is to assess the feasibility of metabonomics to detect at an early stage the onset of the disease. The diagnostic biomarkers could then be used as “efficacy markers” for nutritional intervention in preventing and/or slowing the progression of FORL. ¹H-NMR- and LC/MS-based metabonomic analysis of saliva samples obtained from a group of 21 cats (11 healthy and 10 FORL diseased) showed clear differences in the metabolic composition of saliva from healthy and FORL-diseased cats. To identify biomarkers, the spectroscopic data was processed using partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and validated by leave-one-subject-out cross validation. The PLS-DA model predicted FORL- diseased cats with over 60% accuracy. The maximum value of Q² of the random permutation sets was less than 0.3. The diseased cats showed increased levels of many organic and amino acids, such as acetate, lactate, propionate, isovalerate, tryptamine, and phenylalanine suggesting changes in oral microflora in the disease situation. This study is preliminary and a larger study with more samples to further validate the biomarker profile predictive of an early FORL pathophysiological status is in progress.