Metabolic Signatures of Vertigo: A qNMR Exploration Into the Biochemical Landscape

Abstract

Vertigo is a type of dizziness that typically occurs without movement and may arise independently or as a symptom of an underlying condition. It is classified as either central or peripheral, with central vertigo often caused by brain tumors, hemorrhages, or vascular aneurysms. This study aims to identify functional metabolites associated with vertigo and explore their related metabolic pathways. Metabolic profiling of serum samples from 33 vertigo patients and 34 healthy controls was conducted using 1H-QNMR spectroscopy. Following log10 transformation and normalization, univariate and multivariate analyses (FC, p-value, FDR, and VIP) were applied to identify significant metabolites. KEGG-based pathway and disease enrichment analyses were performed to explore biological relevance and clinical associations. ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the ability of selected metabolites to discriminate between vertigo patients and healthy controls within this exploratory dataset, and inter-metabolite relationships were assessed using Pearson correlation. Vertigo patients showed significantly different metabolomic profiles compared to healthy controls. Serum levels of capric acid, homocysteine, O-phosphoethanolamine, methylmalonate, N-carbamoylaspartate, and proline were significantly elevated, while glycylproline levels were decreased. These findings suggest a potential link between vertigo and these functionally relevant metabolites. Vertigo patients showed lower glycylproline and higher homocysteine and capric acid levels than healthy controls. These metabolites discriminated between groups in this exploratory cohort, but they should not be interpreted as clinically validated diagnostic markers. Further independent, longitudinal, and clinically well-characterized studies are required.