Metabolic and Metabo-Clinical Signatures of T2D, Obesity, Retinopathy and Dyslipidemia.

Macro- and microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes (T2D), obesity, and dyslipidemia share common metabolic pathways. Here, using a total of 1,300 metabolites from 996 Qatari adults (57% with T2D) and 1,159 metabolites from an independent cohort of 2,618 individuals from the Qatar BioBank (11% with T2D), we identified 373 metabolites associated with T2D, obesity, retinopathy, dyslipidemia and lipoprotein levels, 161 of which were novel. Novel metabolites included phospholipids, sphingolipids, lysolipids, fatty acids, dipeptides, and metabolites of the urea cycle and xanthine, steroid and glutathione metabolism. The identified metabolites enrich pathways of oxidative stress, lipotoxicity, glucotoxicity and proteolysis. Second, we identified 15 patterns we defined as “metabo-clinical signatures.” These are clusters of T2D patients that group together based on metabolite levels and reveal the same clustering in two or more clinical variables (obesity, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, retinopathy). These signatures revealed metabolic pathways associated with different clinical patterns and identified patients with extreme (very high/low) clinical variables associated with extreme metabolite levels in specific pathways. Among our novel findings are the role of N-acetylmethionine in retinopathy in conjunction with dyslipidemia and the possible roles of N-acetylvaline and pyroglutamine in association with high cholesterol levels and kidney function.