# Plasma metabolites in childhood Burkitt lymphoma cases and cancer-free controls in Uganda

## TL;DR

This study identifies specific plasma metabolites that differ between children with Burkitt lymphoma and healthy controls in Uganda, suggesting potential biomarkers for diagnosis.

## Contribution

The study is the first to characterize plasma metabolomic profiles in childhood Burkitt lymphoma cases in Uganda.

## Key findings

- 42 plasma metabolites showed significantly different levels in Burkitt lymphoma cases compared to controls (FDR < 0.001).
- Two metabolites (triacylglyceride (18:0_38:6) and alpha-aminobutyric acid) effectively discriminated BL cases from controls with high accuracy (AUC = 0.97).

## Abstract

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma associated with Plasmodium falciparum and Epstein-Barr virus, both of which affect metabolic pathways. The metabolomic patterns of BL is unknown.

We measured 627 metabolites in pre-chemotherapy treatment plasma samples from 25 male children (6–11 years) with BL and 25 cancer-free area- and age-frequency-matched male controls from the Epidemiology of Burkitt Lymphoma in East African Children and Minors study in Uganda using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Unconditional, age-adjusted logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the BL association with 1-standard deviation increase in the log-metabolite concentration, adjusting for multiple comparisons using false discovery rate (FDR) thresholds and Bonferroni correction.

Compared to controls, levels for 42 metabolite concentrations differed in BL cases (FDR < 0.001), including triacylglyceride (18:0_38:6), alpha-aminobutyric acid (AABA), ceramide (d18:1/20:0), phosphatidylcholine ae C40:6 and phosphatidylcholine C38:6 as the top signals associated with BL (ORs = 6.9 to 14.7, P < 2.4✕10− 4). Two metabolites (triacylglyceride (18:0_38:6) and AABA) selected using stepwise logistic regression discriminated BL cases from controls with an area under the curve of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.00).

Our findings warrant further examination of plasma metabolites as potential biomarkers for BL risk/diagnosis.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11306-024-02130-1.