Independent serum metabolomics approaches identify disrupted glutamic acid and serine metabolism in Parkinson’s disease patients

Whether distinct blood metabolomic profiles can distinguish Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients from healthy controls (HC) is still a matter of debate. Here, we employed ¹H-NMR and UPLC/MS analyses on serum samples from a cohort of PD patients and HC. Compared to HC, PD patients showed: (1) higher glutamine, serine, pyruvate and lower α-ketoglutarate levels (1H-NMR); (2) higher glycine and lower glutamic acid concentrations (UPLC/MS). Several pathways associated with amino acids, mitochondrial and antioxidant metabolism emerged as dysregulated in PD. Our findings highlight a prominent disruption of cellular bioenergetic pathways and amino acid homeostasis in PD.