Comprehension of metabolic disorders in inflammatory and neoplastic hyper-proliferative diseases: a NMR contribution

A progression model based on genetic alterations has been proposed for several types of tumors and in skin diseases, the concept of cancerization field involves cluster of genetically altered cells in a chronically photo damaged skin without clinical evidence of neoplastic lesions [1]. Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (CSCC) is a common skin cancer characterized by malignant proliferation of keratinocytes. CSCC usually arises from precursor lesions such as actinic keratosis (AKs), but can also grow de novo or on chronically inflamed skin. AKs are the most common skin lesion of disordered keratinocyte proliferation in the disease continuum of photo-damaged skin that may lead to invasive CSCC. In addition, patients with psoriasis can be developed AK or CSCC. Exploring the metabolome of cancer, precancerous lesions and inflammatory disease seems to be a parallel and effective way to understand the phenotypic changes associated with cancer progression. Metabolomics could reveal novel cancer biomarkers that might expand our current understanding of the multifactorial disease. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, giving an accurate description of the molecular composition of a human tissue, provides a “fingerprint” of the whole metabolome [2]. Correlations between some metabolites and proliferative markers allow gaining insight into the relationship between cellular proliferation and metabolic changes associated with the presence of tumor and its aggressiveness.