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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Metabolomics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1421699
This article is part of the Research Topic Metabolomics in Human and Animal Ophthalmic Research View all 3 articles

Metabolomic changes in tear fluid following zinc biofortification in the BiZiFED nutritional study: a feasibility study

Provisionally accepted
Connor N. Brown Connor N. Brown 1BABAR SHAHZAD BABAR SHAHZAD 2Mukhtiar Zaman Mukhtiar Zaman 3Xiaobei Pan Xiaobei Pan 4Brian D. Green Brian D. Green 4Nicola M. Lowe Nicola M. Lowe 5Imre Lengyel Imre Lengyel 6*
  • 1 Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
  • 2 Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
  • 3 Department of Pulmonology, Rehman Medical Institute (RMI), Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
  • 4 Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
  • 5 Centre for Global Development, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England, United Kingdom
  • 6 Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Biofortified Zinc Flour to Eliminate Deficiency in Pakistan (BiZiFED) is a nutritional research program that evaluates the impact of consuming zinc biofortified wheat flour on zinc status and associated health outcomes of vulnerable communities in northwest Pakistan. Measuring zinc status from blood samples is fraught with problems. This feasibility study evaluated whether metabolite changes in tear biofluids could be used to understand zinc status. Zinc deficiency is particularly prevalent amongst the female population in Pakistan. Therefore, a crossover trial was developed in which 25 women of reproductive age received standard, wheat flour, and another 25 received zincbiofortified wheat flour for 8 weeks. At the end of this period, the nutritional intervention was switched between the groups for another 8 weeks. Tear biofluid was collected using Schirmer strips at baseline and after 8 and 16 weeks. Metabolomic analysis was conducted using the MxP® Quant 500 kit on the tear biofluid from a subset of the study participants. Two metabolites had a significantly negative correlation with plasma zinc concentration: tiglylcarnitine and valine. Compared to baseline metabolite concentrations, acetylcarnitine, glutamine, two lysophosphatidylcholines (lysoPC a C16:0 and lysoPC a C18:1), and four sphingomyelins (SM (OH) C16:1, SM C16:0, SM C16:1, and SM C24:0) were all significantly decreased post-zinc intervention, whilst a ceramide (Cer(d18:1/18:0) was significantly increased. These results highlight the potential of using tear biofluids as an alternative source for metabolomic biomarkers, both for the assessment of the zinc status of individuals enrolled in nutritional studies and for indicating physiological changes that arise from nutritional supplementation.

    Keywords: Zinc, nutrition, tear, LC-MS, BiZiFED, Metabolomics

    Received: 22 Apr 2024; Accepted: 28 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Brown, SHAHZAD, Zaman, Pan, Green, Lowe and Lengyel. 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: Imre Lengyel, Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.