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Plasma metabolomic profiles associated with hypertension and blood pressure in response to thiazide diuretics

A Comment to this article was published on 14 January 2022

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the metabolomic alterations associated with hypertension (HTN) and the response of blood pressure (BP) to thiazide diuretics. A total of 50 participants previously untreated for HTN were prospectively recruited. After a 2-week lifestyle adjustment, 30 participants with systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg were classified into the HTN group and prescribed hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) at 50 mg per day for 2 weeks. The remaining 20 participants, who had relatively normal BP, were assigned to the normotension group. Metabolomic profiles related to the response of BP to thiazide diuretics were analyzed. A total of 73 differential metabolites were found to be associated with HTN, and 27 metabolites were significantly changed upon HCTZ treatment (HCTZ-sensitive metabolites). Among the identified metabolites, 7 (aspartate, histidine, C5-DC, C5-M-DC, C14:1, phosphatidylcholine ae C34:1, and phosphatidylcholine ae C34:3) were positively associated with HTN and decreased in abundance upon HCTZ treatment (HCTZ-reduced/HTN-associated metabolites). Moreover, multivariate analysis of 20 metabolites whose baseline levels were associated with the response of BP revealed that aspartate, glutamate, lysophosphatidylcholine C16:0, lysophosphatidylcholine C20:3, and sphingomyelin C24:1 were independently related to systolic BP reduction, and lysophosphatidylcholine C20:3 was independently associated with diastolic BP reduction. In conclusion, we identified 5 metabolites independently related to BP changes with HCTZ treatment. An advanced biomarker profile of thiazide-induced metabolomic changes may provide a clue with which to further explore the complex and mixed effects of thiazide treatment in a clinical setting.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jie-Ling Li for her excellent technical support. This work was supported by research grants VGHUST108-G1-3-1, VGHUST108-G1-3-2, VGHUST108-G1-3-3, and V110C-058 from Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, and by research grants NSC 100-2314-B-075-055, MOST108-2314-B-075-062-MY3, and MOST 109-2311-B-010-003 from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. The funders had no role in the study design, the data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chin-Chou Huang or Chao-Hsiung Lin.

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Huang, CC., Huang, YL., Lin, CH. et al. Plasma metabolomic profiles associated with hypertension and blood pressure in response to thiazide diuretics. Hypertens Res 45, 464–473 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-021-00825-9

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