Evaluation of lipid metabolism imbalance in HIV-infected patients with metabolic disorders using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

• Lipid metabolism imbalance in HIV-infected patients is probed by HPLC–MS/MS. • Lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) and acylcarnitines (ACs) are identified as biomarkers. • A robust and sensitive method of LPC and AC analysis in blood serum is developed. • Multi-LPC and AC indices enable discrimination of different HIV infections & controls. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and highly active antiretroviral therapy use are associated with the disruption of lipid and glucose metabolism. Herein, a sensitive and robust high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) and acylcarnitines (ACs) in human blood serum was developed and validated to investigate them as markers of metabolic disorders in HIV-infected patients. Under optimal extraction and detection conditions, the lower limits of quantification reached 5 ng/mL (LPCs) and 0.1 ng/mL (ACs), and precision and accuracy for both intra- and inter-day analyses were generally below 15%. Serum samples were stable for at least six months when stored at − 80 °C and for at least 12 h when stored at 4 °C or 25 °C. We investigated inter-group differences and associations between the biomarkers and observed a particular volatility trend of LPCs and ACs for HIV-infected patients with metabolic disorders. Thus, the developed method can be used for the rapid and sensitive quantitation of LPCs and ACs in vivo to further appraise the process of HIV infection, evaluate intervening measures, conduct mechanistic investigations, and further study the utility of LPCs and ACs as biomarkers of HIV infection coupled with metabolic disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]