Tissue-specific metabolomics analysis identifies the liver as a major organ of metabolic disorders in amyloid precursor protein/presenilin 1 (APP/PS1) mice of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is regarded as a metabolic disorder, and more attention has been paid to brain metabolism. However, AD may also affect metabolism in the peripheral organs beyond the brain. In this study, therefore, we investigated metabolic changes in the liver, kidney, and heart of amyloid precursor protein/presenilin 1 (APP/PS1) mice at 1, 5, and 10 months of age by using H-1 NMR-based metabolomics and chemometrics. Metabolomic results reveal that the liver was the earliest affected organ in APP/PS1 mice during amyloid pathology progression, followed by the kidney and heart. Moreover, a hypometabolic state was found in the liver of APP/PS1 mice at 5 months of age, and the disturbed metabolites were mainly involved in energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, nucleic acid metabolism, as well as ketone and fatty acid metabolism. In conclusion, our results suggest that AD is a systemic metabolic dysfunction, and hepatic metabolic abnormality may reflect amyloid pathology progression.