Longitudinal associations of physical activity with plasma metabolites among colorectal cancer survivors up to 2 years after treatment

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 13738
• Main Authors: van Roekel, Eline H., Bours, Martijn J. L., van Delden, Linda, Breukink, Stéphanie O., Aquarius, Michèl, Keulen, Eric T. P., Gicquiau, Audrey, Viallon, Vivian, Rinaldi, Sabina, Vineis, Paolo, Arts, Ilja C. W., Gunter, Marc J., Leitzmann, Michael F., Scalbert, Augustin, Weijenberg, Matty P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02-07-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/45/320; 692/308/174; 692/499; 692/699/67/1504; 692/699/67/2324; Aged; Amino acids; Arginine - blood; Cancer Survivors; Carnitine - analogs & derivatives; Carnitine - blood; Citrulline; Citrulline - blood; Colorectal cancer; Colorectal carcinoma; Colorectal Neoplasms - blood; Colorectal Neoplasms - drug therapy; Colorectal Neoplasms - genetics; Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology; Exercise; Exercise - physiology; Female; Histidine; Histidine - blood; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Inflammation; Lipid metabolism; Lipids; Longitudinal Studies; Lysophosphatidylcholines - blood; Male; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolites; Metabolome - genetics; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Physical activity; Quality of Life; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Self Report; Sphingomyelins - blood; Tandem Mass Spectrometry
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92279-9

We investigated longitudinal associations of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and light-intensity physical activity (LPA) with plasma concentrations of 138 metabolites after colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment. Self-reported physical activity data and blood samples were obtained at 6 weeks, and 6, 12 and 24 months post-treatment in stage I-III CRC survivors (n = 252). Metabolite concentrations were measured by tandem mass spectrometry (BIOCRATES Absolute
IDQ
p180 kit). Linear mixed models were used to evaluate confounder-adjusted longitudinal associations. Inter-individual (between-participant differences) and intra-individual associations (within-participant changes over time) were assessed as percentage difference in metabolite concentration per 5 h/week of MVPA or LPA. At 6 weeks post-treatment, participants reported a median of 6.5 h/week of MVPA (interquartile range:2.3,13.5) and 7.5 h/week of LPA (2.0,15.8). Inter-individual associations were observed with more MVPA being related (FDR-adjusted q-value < 0.05) to higher concentrations of arginine, citrulline and histidine, eight lysophosphatidylcholines, nine diacylphosphatidylcholines, 13 acyl-alkylphosphatidylcholines, two sphingomyelins, and acylcarnitine C10:1. No intra-individual associations were found. LPA was not associated with any metabolite. More MVPA was associated with higher concentrations of several lipids and three amino acids, which have been linked to anti-inflammatory processes and improved metabolic health. Mechanistic studies are needed to investigate whether these metabolites may affect prognosis.