Breath Biopsy® OMNI® Demonstration - Identification of Breath Biomarkers on Diabetic Subjects

Hsuan (Tina) Chou, Liam Grimmett, Ibrahim Karaman, Oliver Dean, Julia Greenwood, Billy Boyle, Max Allsworth

Owlstone Medical, Cambridge, UK

Poster PDF

Type two diabetes (T2D) is a complex metabolic disorder with persistently elevated blood glucose levels. The metabolic disorder is associated with long-term trends such as high calorie intake, changes in the gut microbiota, and sedentary practices. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the capability of the Breath Biopsy^® OMNI^® platform. Through the investigation of breath VOC profiles in T2D, we aimed to identify volatile metabolites associated with disease progression, in addition to compounds for which the association between blood metabolites and T2D has been established in literature.

Volunteered subjects with T2D (n=27), prediabetes (PD, n=20) and healthy controls (HC, n=29) participated in this study. Breath Biopsy samples were analyzed with thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) using the Breath Biopsy^® OMNI^® Platform. Further analysis focused on a subset of subjects with over 8 hours fasting for a more accurate reflection of disease-associated metabolic changes. A total of 156 VOCs reached statistical significance (unadjusted p value <0.05) between T2D and HC groups. On-breath compounds with a consistent trend among T2D, PD and HC reflected various interesting physiological associations to the complex metabolic disorder of diabetes. Key VOCs reflecting physiological associations include acetic acid, isovaleric acid, 3-methylindone (the gut microbiome), methyl propenyl ketone (metabolic processes and inflammation), γ-undecalatone and 3-pyridinol (exposure). The findings indicate that the Breath Biopsy^® OMNI^® Platform has the capability of detecting disease-associated metabolites already established in literature in addition to new potential breath biomarkers.