Integration of proteomic and metabolomic characterization in atrial fibrillation-induced heart failure

Background: The exact mechanism of atrial fibrillation (AF)-induced heart failure (HF) remains unclear. Proteomics and metabolomics were integrated to in this study, as to describe AF patients' dysregulated proteins and metabolites, comparing patients without HF to patients with HF.

Methods: Plasma samples of 20 AF patients without HF and another 20 with HF were analyzed by multi-omics platforms. Proteomics was performed with data independent acquisition-based liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), as metabolomics was performed with LC-MS/MS platform. Proteomic and metabolomic results were analyzed separately and integrated using univariate statistical methods, multivariate statistical methods or machine learning model.

Results: We found 35 up-regulated and 15 down-regulated differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in AF patients with HF compared to AF patients without HF. Moreover, 121 up-regulated and 14 down-regulated differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) were discovered in HF patients compared to AF patients without HF. An integrated analysis of proteomics and metabolomics revealed several significantly enriched pathways, including Glycolysis or Gluconeogenesis, Tyrosine metabolism and Pentose phosphate pathway. A total of 10 DEPs and DEMs selected as potential biomarkers provided excellent predictive performance, with an AUC of 0.94. In addition, subgroup analysis of HF classification was performed based on metabolomics, which yielded 9 DEMs that can distinguish between AF and HF for HF classification.

Conclusions: This study provides novel insights to understanding the mechanisms of AF-induced HF progression and identifying novel biomarkers for prognosis of AF with HF by using metabolomics and proteomics analyses.