Behavioral metabolomics: how behavioral data can guide metabolomics research on neuropsychiatric disorders.
Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society August 2, 2023 Ross Van de Wetering, Jan A Vorster, Sophie Geyrhofer et al. 4 citations
Combining behavioral models with metabolomics can help identify which metabolites are most relevant to substance use disorders. In a preclinical experiment, untargeted metabolomics was performed on 336 microdialysis samples from the medial striatum of 21 male Sprague-Dawley rats during an MDMA-induced behavioral sensitization study. Orthogonal partial least squares analysis, using behavioral data as the Y variable and relative concentrations of 737 detected features as X variables, revealed that MDMA and its derivatives, serotonin, and several dopamine/norepinephrine metabolites were the strongest predictors of acute MDMA-produced behavior. Repeated MDMA exposure significantly altered MDMA metabolism, which may contribute to increased abuse liability with repeated use. Including behavioral data guides metabolomics analysis and enhances relevance to the phenotype of interest.