Taurine, glycine, tryptophan and kynurenine are key metabolic signatures for differentiation of extrapulmonary pleural tuberculosis

Taurine, Glycine, Tryptophan, and Kynurenine are important, metabolic biomarkers for differentiation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Taurine, Glycine, Tryptophan, and Kynurenine are important, metabolic biomarkers for differentiation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis Khushboo Borah Slater, Holly May-Lewis, Ye Xu, Roberto Stefan Almeida Ribeiro, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality in humans with clinical manifestations as pulmonary and extrapulmonary forms. TB pleural effusion (PlTB) is one of the main forms of extrapulmonary TB, which is challenging to diagnose due to overlapping clinical symptoms with other non-TB pleural effusions and poses severe complications in treatment and management of disease. We urgently need novel biomarkers to improve diagnostics for PlTB. Here we conducted a high-throughput 96 well plate-based targeted LC-MS/MS metabolomics to quantify metabolic signatures in serum and pleural fluid of PlTB patients. We identified taurine, glycine, tryptophan and kynurenine as the top metabolites for differentiation of PlTB from pulmonary TB and non-TB pleural effusions. Our work provides a new metabolomic assay for biomarker analysis and identifies important metabolic signatures that will advance diagnostics for accurate detection of PlTB. Extrapulmonary Pleural tuberculosis metabolomics biomarker Mycobacterium tuberculosis Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files SupplementaryFilefinal.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7093122","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":491762317,"identity":"4b22c4d9-4600-4186-ae30-704702216f61","order_by":0,"name":"Khushboo Borah Slater","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABFElEQVRIie2Rv0rDQBzHv3KQLKdd7yg0r3BHwUn6LJFAnN0KCrkQSJdoV/sWfQCHCwdmKfoAdbAU4moWURDx4qJCQnVzuM9y//jA93s/wOH4hzDQdtGA/3k++v7o7VAI9hQQo939STG7Fa72y+30/B5BRh4fmuu7kajm9gaTACwOu5QhDiK5uqkhjCfTq3o95oUhcoVIKhbrLmUEesiVZ5IlgcyoXh/PWeRxBRKCnah+5d3YYH6TvenbJA+2/qtC0qsMWyXNbWtDZQatwwEjnv0IY5XuYDyzXdJLY7vQ00WhI7koojFXopI5rTvrs+qi3KhnG2w2Wz696EkgqnLTqOlZMPBj0aV8DeEnom8qDofD4fgNH+SbWgmj0bPeAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Exeter","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Khushboo","middleName":"Borah","lastName":"Slater","suffix":""},{"id":491762319,"identity":"c8a7e189-b1c1-4531-9035-75a446bf2658","order_by":1,"name":"Holly May-Lewis","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Surrey","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Holly","middleName":"","lastName":"May-Lewis","suffix":""},{"id":491762320,"identity":"625569b9-c567-40a0-b878-85f3f3d99e2a","order_by":2,"name":"Ye Xu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ye","middleName":"","lastName":"Xu","suffix":""},{"id":491762321,"identity":"c363c38f-4c0b-4731-a823-3574d8e5213f","order_by":3,"name":"Roberto Stefan Almeida Ribeiro","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roberto","middleName":"Stefan Almeida","lastName":"Ribeiro","suffix":""},{"id":491762322,"identity":"852e796f-3346-4c81-8498-b4dcd06da410","order_by":4,"name":"Raquel Silva Correa","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Raquel","middleName":"Silva","lastName":"Correa","suffix":""},{"id":491762323,"identity":"39952ec3-51c7-47e6-82fb-7bf06e61966d","order_by":5,"name":"Thiago Thomaz Mafort","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pedro Ernesto University Hospital (HUPE), UERJ","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Thiago","middleName":"Thomaz","lastName":"Mafort","suffix":""},{"id":491762324,"identity":"3049ca4e-3557-4cc8-a1c4-985345f8791b","order_by":6,"name":"Ana Paula Santos","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pedro Ernesto University Hospital (HUPE), UERJ","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ana","middleName":"Paula","lastName":"Santos","suffix":""},{"id":491762325,"identity":"72207198-cc3c-4778-932d-6740cacb7872","order_by":7,"name":"Rogério Rufino","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pedro Ernesto University Hospital (HUPE), UERJ","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rogério","middleName":"","lastName":"Rufino","suffix":""},{"id":491762326,"identity":"fbc44df8-ce75-4521-a25c-e4c2b2f2bb8a","order_by":8,"name":"Luciana Rodrigues","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Luciana","middleName":"","lastName":"Rodrigues","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-10 12:38:25","currentVersionCode":2,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v2","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v2","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":91462081,"identity":"58746d7b-4390-425d-bce2-fb8c8c3f4d34","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-16 17:32:47","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":662918,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7093122/v2_covered_71a5f05d-5559-4a63-b68a-d23efbc4b371.pdf"},{"id":91461292,"identity":"21284ab1-30f8-41a1-bcc7-8f04f3757b74","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-16 17:16:46","extension":"xlsx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":78164,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryFilefinal.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7093122/v2/ffd433b8f2b49ffb38ca9552.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eTaurine, Glycine, Tryptophan, and Kynurenine are important, metabolic biomarkers for differentiation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":true,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Extrapulmonary, Pleural tuberculosis, metabolomics, biomarker, Mycobacterium tuberculosis","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v2","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v2","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eTuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality in humans with clinical manifestations as pulmonary and extrapulmonary forms. TB pleural effusion (PlTB) is one of the main forms of extrapulmonary TB, which is challenging to diagnose due to overlapping clinical symptoms with other non-TB pleural effusions and poses severe complications in treatment and management of disease. We urgently need novel biomarkers to improve diagnostics for PlTB. Here we conducted a high-throughput 96 well plate-based targeted LC-MS/MS metabolomics to quantify metabolic signatures in serum and pleural fluid of PlTB patients. We identified taurine, glycine, tryptophan and kynurenine as the top metabolites for differentiation of PlTB from pulmonary TB and non-TB pleural effusions. Our work provides a new metabolomic assay for biomarker analysis and identifies important metabolic signatures that will advance diagnostics for accurate detection of PlTB.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Taurine, Glycine, Tryptophan, and Kynurenine are important, metabolic biomarkers for differentiation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":2,"date":"2025-09-16 17:08:41","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v2","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}},{"code":1,"date":"2025-07-28 07:18:38","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7093122/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"3f34f007-b2e6-431a-b286-349efac7f4d0","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 16th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-03T14:54:02+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-16 17:08:41","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v2","identity":"rs-7093122","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7093122","identity":"rs-7093122","version":["v2"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}