Blood sample test can diagnose fibromyalgia via Raman spectroscopy
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Key takeaways:
- Aromatic amino acids and peptide backbones “most effectively discriminated” fibromyalgia from other rheumatic diseases.
- Further studies aim to identify biomarkers of fibromyalgia.
A blood sample analysis using Raman spectroscopy, combined with statistical modeling, was sufficient to diagnose fibromyalgia, according to data published in Biomedicines.
“A rapid test which can be conducted at evaluation sites can lead to peace of mind for the patient and can also achieve considerable cost savings,” study author Kevin V. Hackshaw, MD, a rheumatologist at the University of Texas at Austin, told Healio.
According to Hackshaw and colleagues, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with gold particles, coupled with chemometrics, discriminated fibromyalgia from other rheumatic disorders with 100% diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, indicating the method “can be used as a real-time point-of-care device for screening of fibromyalgia,” they wrote.
To test the feasibility of this method, the researchers analyzed blood samples from 83 patients with fibromyalgia, 54 with other rheumatic disorders — rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain — and nine healthy controls. Low-molecular-weight fraction (LMF) serums were obtained via semi-permeable membrane filtration, and SERS spectra were gathered for 20 seconds at 8.7 mW of laser power.
The researchers then used orthogonal signal correction-partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) to develop a predictive algorithm to identify samples with fibromyalgia among those with other rheumatic disorders.
In both a calibration model and an external validation model, the OPLS-DA algorithm exhibited no misclassification. The results revealed aromatic amino acids and peptide backbones as “the biomolecules that most effectively discriminated fibromyalgia from other rheumatic diseases,” the researchers wrote
According to Hacksaw, the researchers aim to conduct further studies identifying biomarkers of fibromyalgia, and are investigating the use of vibrational spectroscopy to characterize fibromyalgia therapeutic subsets.
“For example, patients with fibromyalgia may or may not have severe forms of comorbid depression,” he said. “We want to know whether those individuals with profound depression, compared with those individuals without depressive affect, have a biochemical signature that distinguishes them. Furthermore, we want to determine if we are targeting the specific biochemical moieties responsible for clinical characteristics of the fibromyalgia population. The results of our studies could lead to personalized medicine.”
References:
A blood test will diagnose fibromyalgia more reliably. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1036432. Published March 4, 2024. Accessed March 11, 2024.
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