A plasma metabolomic fingerprint of moderate or severe hearing loss.

Abstract

Disabling hearing loss affects millions of adults world-wide. Metabolomics investigations are comprehensive assessments of an individual's metabolic processes that could provide insight into biological pathways underlying auditory dysfunction, yet data are limited.We conducted a cross-sectional investigation of the association of plasma metabolite profiles and self-reported adult-onset moderate or severe hearing loss among 3925 women, including 1167 hearing loss cases and 2758 controls in the Nurses' Health Study. Information on hearing status at the time of the blood collection and on relevant risk factors was collected on biennial questionnaires. Metabolic profiling was conducted by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The independent associations of 278 metabolites with hearing loss was assessed in logistic regression models adjusted for age, fasting status, race/ethnicity, co-morbidities, medication use and biobehavioral factors. The false discovery rate was controlled at 5% through the q-value approach. Metabolite Set Enrichment Analysis was conducted to identify metabolite classes that are enriched for concordant associations with hearing loss.We identified 10 metabolites that were significantly associated (q value?

View details for DOI 10.1007/s11306-026-02395-8

View details for PubMedID 41758480

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC12948882