Plasma lipidomics of tuberculosis patients: altered phosphatidylcholine remodeling

Decreased circulating levels of lysophosphatidylcholines have been monitored in the serum of tuberculosis (TB) patients. However, the etiology of these findings has not been explored and other critical lung surfactant lipids have not been examined. Materials & methods: We undertook a lipidomics analysis of 30 controls and 30 TB patients, utilizing a high-resolution mass spectrometric analytical platform that assays over 1800 lipids. Findings: As previously reported, we found decrements in the plasma levels of lysophosphatidylcholines in TB patients. In addition, we report for the first time that there are increases in the plasma levels of phosphatidylcholines and phosphatidylglycerols in TB patients. Conclusion: These data suggest that TB results in altered glycerophosphocholine remodeling involving deacylation-reacylation reactions at sn-2 of the glycerol backbone. Such alterations in lipid remodeling have the potential to exert negative effects on the function of lung surfactant, on signal transduction mechanisms and membrane structural lipid architecture in TB patients.