Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/srep19780
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Foundation for the NIH
- National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center
- Fogarty International Center/NIH [K02 TW008767]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Enteric infections, enteropathy and undernutrition in early childhood are preventable risk factors for child deaths, impaired neurodevelopment, and later life metabolic diseases. However, the mechanisms linking these exposures and outcomes remain to be elucidated, as do biomarkers for identifying children at risk. By examining the urinary metabolic phenotypes of nourished and undernourished children participating in a case-control study in Semi-Arid Brazil, we identified key differences with potential relevance to mechanisms, biomarkers and outcomes. Undernutrition was found to perturb several biochemical pathways, including choline and tryptophan metabolism, while also increasing the proteolytic activity of the gut microbiome. Furthermore, a metabolic adaptation was observed in the undernourished children to reduce energy expenditure, reflected by increased N-methylnicotinamide and reduced beta-aminoisobutyric acid excretion. Interestingly, accelerated catch-up growth was observed in those undernourished children displaying a more robust metabolic adaptation several months earlier. Hence, urinary N-methylnicotinamide and beta-aminoisobutyric acid represent promising biomarkers for predicting short-term growth outcomes in undernourished children and for identifying children destined for further growth shortfalls. These findings have important implications for understanding contributors to long-term sequelae of early undernutrition, including cognitive, growth, and metabolic functions.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available