Untargeted lipidomics reveals colonic lipid alterations in C57BL/6J mice with acute Toxoplasma gondii infection

ABSTRACT:

Although Toxoplasma gondii has been recognized as an obligate intracellular parasite, the lipid metabolic alterations it induces in colonic contents during acute infection remain poorly characterized. This study generated an acute infection model using C57BL/6J mice by oral inoculation with the T. gondii ME49 strain and performed untargeted lipidomics analysis on the colonic contents collected at day 10 post-infection. Acute infection was found to significantly elevate glycerophospholipids and reduce sphingolipids, glycerolipids, and prenol lipids, leading to 136 differentially abundant lipids. Pathway enrichment analysis identified two most significantly affected pathways: choline metabolism in cancer and glycerophospholipid metabolism, with LPA(16:0) and LPC(18:1) functioning as core hub nodes. ROC analysis identified PE(20:1e_22:4), PE(16:0_22:6), Hex1Cer(m18:0_20:4), and Hex1Cer(t17:0_22:6) as potential diagnostic biomarkers. The lipid biomarkers identified provide new candidate targets for diagnosing toxoplasmosis and for host-directed therapeutic strategies

INSTRUMENT(S): Liquid Chromatography MS - positive - hilic, Liquid Chromatography MS - negative - hilic

PROVIDER: MTBLS15624 | MetaboLights | 2026-09-10

REPOSITORIES: MetaboLights