Late Breaking Abstract - Salivary metabolites profiling for diagnosis of COPD

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Pulmonary function examination (PFE)is the gold standard for the diagnosis of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study aims to explore a novel diagnostic method based on salivary metabolomics for the limited availability at primary care facilities and difficulties in implementation of PFE. <bold>Methods:</bold> Saliva samples were collected from 88 COPD patients and 71 healthy controls from the outpatient department of West China Hospital, which was utilized to analyze the metabolites based on the UPLC-Q- Exactive Orbitrap-MS platform. PLS-DA, OPLS-DA, and muti-variable regression models were used to identify differential metabolites and potential biomarkers of COPD. ROC curve was used to assess the diagnostic efficacy of the predictive model generated by potential biomarkers. <bold>Results:</bold> Significant differences in the salivary metabolome between COPD patients and healthy controls were identified (Fig 1), with 261 differential metabolites recognized, 16 of which were considered “reliable” metabolites. Logistic regression analysis pinpointed 3 unique metabolites significantly impacting the FEV1/FVC ratio, suggesting these metabolites as potential biomarkers for COPD diagnosis. The diagnostic model based on these metabolites can separate COPD patients from healthy people (Fig 2). <bold>Conclusions:</bold> Our research shows that salivary metabolomic profiling emerges as a promising diagnostic tool for COPD. The measurement of salivary metabolites holds the potential to enhance diagnostic accuracy in the future, facilitating widespread screening in primary healthcare settings without the necessity for conventional pulmonary function testing equipment, and diminishing diagnostic delays.