ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1546665
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Biomarkers and Drug Targets: Harnessing Traditional and AI Approaches for Novel Therapeutic MechanismsView all 7 articles
Analysis of Serum Amino Acids and Tryptophan metabolites to Predict Hepatic Encephalopathy in Portal Hypertension Patients Receiving a Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic shunt (TIPS)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pharmacy, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 2Department of Interventional Therapy, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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The incidence of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) after transjugular intrahepatic portal shunt (TIPS) is over 30%, how to decrease the occurrence rate of HE is one of the most challenging issues after TIPS surgery. The aim of this study is to identify the potential biomarker that can predict the occurence of HE after TIPS in patients with portal hypertension (PH), and provide the theoretical support for early clinical diagnosis and prevention. A total of 50 patients with PH underwent TIPS were enrolled with completed clinical information in this study, and they were divided into two groups with or without the complications of HE. We quantitatively determined 20 serum amino acids, and found that 4 amino acid levels were increased significantly in patients who complicated HE after TIPS. Screened by the specific screening criteria (VIP>1.0; P<0.05; FC>1.5, or FC<0.67) on MetaboAnalyst 5.0 on-line platform, tryptophan (TRP) were identified as the potential biomarker (50.31 μmol/L in non-HE group vs 100.21 μmol/L in HE group). Subsequently the detection of serum tryptophan metabolites revealed that the higher levels of kynurenine (KYN) and 2,3-Pyridinedicarboxylic acid (QA) were observed in the patients complicated HE after TIPS. ROC multivariate analysis indicated that the combination of TRP, KYN and QA provied the better predictive value for HE occurrence in PH patients underwent TIPS (AUC=0.92). This study provided the theoretical suggestion to the clinical doctor which the level of serum TRP/KYN/QA of patients should be detected before TIPS, and It is of great significance for patient prognosis and reducing the occurrence of HE after TIPS.
Keywords: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE), portal hypertension (PH), Transjugular intrahepatic portal shunt (TIPS), Amino Acids, Tryptophan metabolites
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bao, Lv, Yang, Li, Shi and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Li Bao, Department of Pharmacy, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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