Plasma metabolomics reveal the correlation of metabolic pathways and Prakritis of humans

BACKGROUND: Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medicinal system, has categorized human body constitutions in three broad constitutional types (prakritis) i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha. OBJECTIVES: Analysis of plasma metabolites and related pathways to classify Prakriti specific dominant marker metabolites and metabolic pathways. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 38 healthy male individuals were assessed for dominant Prakritis and their fasting blood samples were collected. The processed plasma samples were subjected to rapid resolution liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (RRLC–ESI–QTOFMS). Mass profiles were aligned and subjected to multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) model showed 97.87% recognition capability. List of PLS-DA metabolites was subjected to permutative Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction and final list of 76 metabolites with p < 0.05 and fold-change > 2.0 was identified. Pathway analysis using metascape and JEPETTO plugins in Cytoscape revealed that steroidal hormone biosynthesis, amino acid, and arachidonic acid metabolism are major pathways varying with different constitution. Biological Go processes analysis showed that aromatic amino acids, sphingolipids, and pyrimidine nucleotides metabolic processes were dominant in kapha type of body constitution. Fat soluble vitamins, cellular amino acid, and androgen biosynthesis process along with branched chain amino acid and glycerolipid catabolic processes were dominant in pitta type individuals. Vata Prakriti was found to have dominant catecholamine, arachidonic acid and hydrogen peroxide metabolomics processes. CONCLUSION: The neurotransmission and oxidative stress in vata, BCAA catabolic, androgen, xenobiotics metabolic processes in pitta, and aromatic amino acids, sphingolipid, and pyrimidine metabolic process in kapha Prakriti were the dominant marker pathways.