ArticleScientific reports2025
CSF carnitine is a potential biomarker in paediatric tuberculous meningitis.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Metabolic insights into the pathophysiology of tuberculous meningitis in FFPE postmortem human brain tissue.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2026Article
- Insights from LC-MS-based cerebrospinal fluid metabolomics in tuberculous meningitis.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2026Article
- Immune-inflammatory profiles and disease severity in pulmonary tuberculosis complicated by central nervous system tuberculosis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Paediatric CSF acylcarnitine reference ranges.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2025Article
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5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The poor outcome of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is largely due to the difficulty of diagnosis caused by nonspecific symptoms and the absence of specific and sensitive tests. Carnitines regulate energy metabolism, and their elevation has been consistently reported in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of TBM patients. We employed a targeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) approach to investigate the acylcarnitine metabolome in paediatric TBM, comparing it to non-meningitis controls (NMC) and viral meningitis (VM). We also investigated correlations of significant acylcarnitines with clinical metadata. We found that short-chain acylcarnitines were significantly elevated in TBM. Acetylcarnitine, propionylcarnitine, and butyrylcarnitine demonstrated significant diagnostic potential in distinguishing between TBM and control groups, with 80-90% specificity and 70-80% sensitivity. Free carnitine stood out as the strongest potential marker for TBM, distinguishing TBM from NMC (100% specificity, 90% sensitivity) and VM (80% specificity, 90% sensitivity). Furthermore, free carnitine is strongly correlated with basal meningeal enhancement and hydrocephalus, key neuroradiological markers of TBM. Free carnitine could serve as a potential biomarker for TBM, as well as a marker of TBM severity. Our results suggest that disruptions in fatty acid and energy metabolism in TBM cases are important because free carnitine plays a crucial role in the β-oxidation of fatty acids by transporting long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondria for energy production.
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