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Understanding metabolic evolution underlying pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) development may clarify pathobiology and reveal disease-specific biomarkers. Patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) are regularly surveilled for PAH, presenting an opportunity to examine metabolic change as disease develops in an at-risk cohort. We performed mass spectrometry-based metabolomics on longitudinal serum samples collected before and near SSc-PAH diagnosis, compared with time-matched SSc subjects without PAH, in a SSc surveillance cohort. We validated metabolic differences in a second cohort and determined metabolite-phenotype relationships. In parallel, we performed serial metabolomic and hemodynamic assessments as the disease developed in a preclinical model. For differentially expressed metabolites, we investigated corresponding gene expression in human and rodent PAH lungs. Kynurenine and its ratio to tryptophan (kyn/trp) increased over the surveillance period in patients with SSc who developed PAH. Higher kyn/trp measured two years before diagnostic right heart catheterization increased the odds of SSc-PAH diagnosis (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.05-2.36, P = 0.028). The slope of kyn/trp rise during SSc surveillance predicted PAH development and mortality. In both clinical and experimental PAH, higher kynurenine pathway metabolites correlated with adverse pulmonary vascular and RV measurements. In human and rodent PAH lungs, expression of TDO2 , which encodes tryptophan 2,3 dioxygenase (TDO), a protein that catalyzes tryptophan conversion to kynurenine, was significantly upregulated and tightly correlated with pulmonary hypertensive features. Upregulated kynurenine pathway metabolism occurs early in PAH, localizes to the lung, and may be modulated by TDO2 . Kynurenine pathway metabolites may be candidate PAH biomarkers and TDO warrants exploration as a potential novel therapeutic target. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our study shows an early increase in kynurenine pathway metabolism in at-risk subjects with systemic sclerosis who develop pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). We show that kynurenine pathway upregulation precedes clinical diagnosis and that this metabolic shift is associated with increased disease severity and shorter survival times. We also show that gene expression of TDO2, an enzyme that generates kynurenine from tryptophan, rises with PAH development.

Glycogen storage diseases (GSDs) comprise a large, heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by abnormal glycogen deposition. Multiple cases in the literature have demonstrated an association between GSD type I and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). We now also report on two patients with GSD type III and PAH, a novel association. The first patient was a 16-year-old girl of Nicaraguan descent with a history of hepatomegaly and growth retardation. Molecular testing identified a homozygous 17delAG mutation in AGL consistent with GSD type IIIb. At the age of 16, she was found to have PAH and was started on medical therapy. Two years later, she developed acute chest pain and died shortly thereafter. The second patient is a 13-year-old girl of Colombian descent homozygous for the c.3911dupA mutation consistent with GSD IIIa. An echocardiogram at age 2 showed left ventricular hypertrophy, which resolved following the institution of a high protein, moderate carbohydrate diet during the day and continuous gastric-tube feeding overnight. At the age of 12, she was found to have pulmonary hypertension. She was started on sildenafil, and her clinical status has shown marked improvement including normalization of her elevated transaminases. PAH may be a rare association in patients with GSD IIIa and IIIb and should be evaluated with screening echocardiograms for cardiac hypertrophy or if they present with symptoms of right-sided heart failure such as shortness of breath, chest pain, cyanosis, fatigue, dizziness, syncope, or edema. Early diagnosis of PAH is important as increasingly effective treatments are now available.