Metabolomic Characterization of Cerebrospinal Fluid from Intracranial Bacterial Infection Pediatric Patients: A Pilot Study

Intracranial bacterial infection remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in neurosurgical cases. Metabolomic profiling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) holds great promise to gain insights into the pathogenesis of central neural system (CNS) bacterial infections. In this pilot study, we analyzed the metabolites in CSF of CNS infection patients and controls in a pseudo-targeted manner, aiming at elucidating the metabolic dysregulation in response to postoperative intracranial bacterial infection of pediatric cases. Untargeted analysis uncovered 597 metabolites, and screened out 206 differential metabolites in case of infection. Targeted verification and pathway analysis filtered out the glycolysis, amino acids metabolism and purine metabolism pathways as potential pathological pathways. These perturbed pathways are involved in the infection-induced oxidative stress and immune response. Characterization of the infection-induced metabolic changes can provide robust biomarkers of CNS bacterial infection for clinical diagnosis, novel pathways for pathological investigation, and new targets for treatment.