Urine metabolic profiling for the pathogenesis research of erosive oral lichen planus.

Objective: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a relatively common chronic immune-pathological and inflammatory disease and potentially oral precancerous lesion. Erosive OLP patients show the higher rate of malignant transformation than patients with non-erosive OLP. Identifying the potential biomarkers related to erosive OLP may help to understand the pathogenesis of the diseases. Methods: Metabolic profiles were compared in control and patient subjects with erosive OLP by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOFMS) coupled with pattern recognition methods An integrative analysis was used to identify the perturbed metabolic pathways and pathological processes that may be associated with the disease. Results: In total, 12 modulated metabolites were identified and considered as the potential biomarkers of erosive OLP. Multiple metabolic pathways and pathological processes were involved in erosive OLP. Conclusion: The dysregulations of these metabolites could be used to explain the pathogenesis of the disease, which could also be the potential therapeutic targets for the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]