Combined metabolomic and lipidomic analysis uncovers metabolic profile and biomarkers for papillary thyroid carcinoma

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy with a rapidly increasing incidence. The pathogenesis of PTC is unclear, but metabolic and lipidomic reprogramming may play a role in tumor growth. We applied ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to perform globally targeted metabolomics and lipidomics on plasma samples from 94 patients with PTC and 100 healthy controls (HC). We identified 113 differential metabolites and 236 differential lipids, mainly involved in branched-chain amino acid metabolism, glutamate and glutamine metabolism, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and lipid metabolism. We also screened three potential metabolite biomarkers: sebacic acid, L-glutamine, and indole-3-carboxaldehyde. These biomarkers showed excellent diagnostic performance for PTC in both discovery and validation cohorts, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.994 and 0.925, respectively. Our findings reveal distinct metabolic and lipidomic features of PTC and provide novel targets for diagnosis and treatment.