2021 · Nutrition and metabolic insights · open access
Evaluation of the Utility of Amino Acid Citrulline as a Surrogate Metabolomic Biomarker for the Diagnosis of Celiac Disease
Lomash et al.
The finding, in our words
Dried blood spot citrulline measurements gave comparable results to plasma for identifying intestinal damage and monitoring mucosal recovery in coeliac disease. This enables remote monitoring of patients at a distance, supporting decentralised care.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This review of 2022 to 2023 work surveys dried blood microsampling for targeted and untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic profiling, finding the approach viable across paediatric research, therapeutic drug monitoring, metabolite screening, biomarker discovery, sports supervision, clinical disorder studies and forensic toxicology. The authors note that dried blood spots and VAMS dominate the published literature over other volumetric formats, and argue that harmonising analytical methods would accelerate wider clinical adoption of microsampling as an alternative to conventional plasma or serum profiling.
Dried blood spot microsampling shows that paediatric lipid profiles vary significantly across three age groups, 0-10 days, 2-18 months and 3-13 years, with differences in 16 specific lipid species. The authors caution that paediatric ages remain under-mapped in DBS lipidomics and further investigation is required before establishing reference standards.
Volumetric absorptive microsampling showed better precision than dried blood spots and a metabolic profile closer to whole blood, with stable signalling lipids for 24 hours at room temperature but significant changes after one week unless stabilised, indicating feasibility for decentralised sampling with the need for storage strategies.
Frequent dried blood spot sampling detected early changes in beta-cell function more effectively than mixed-meal tolerance tests or urine ratios, supporting its potential as a decentralised monitoring tool for clinical trials.
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.