Sixty Years After a Coal Mine Disaster: Serum Metabolomic Profiles in Older Adults with Long-Term Sequelae of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: A Cross-Sectional Study.
📄 Abstract
Survivors with chronic sequelae of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning after the 1963 Miike-Mikawa coal mine disaster can exhibit persistent higher brain dysfunction in late life. We examined whether serum metabolic alterations remained detectable ~60 years later and assessed serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In this cross-sectional case-control study, outpatients with chronic CO-poisoning sequelae (CO; n = 14) and former miners without CO exposure (CON; n = 16), all aged ≥ 75 years, underwent targeted serum metabolomics (1183 metabolites) and clinical assessments. Between-group differences were evaluated using Welch's Relative to controls, the CO group showed higher valine, alanine, and betaine and lower 3-hydroxybutyric acid, inosine, and hypoxanthine; these contrasts persisted with concordant direction after matching. Serum BDNF was lower in the CO group (unadjusted trend) and was significantly reduced after age/MMSE adjustment ( Six decades after exposure, chronic CO sequelae were associated with a reproducible serum profile combining amino-acid elevations with relative suppression of ketone-body and purine-related metabolites, suggesting enduring alterations in systemic substrate handling and bioenergetics. If replicated in larger cohorts, such signatures-potentially alongside BDNF-should be regarded as hypothesis-generating; biomarker development would require external validation, longitudinal tracking, and assessment of intervention responsiveness before any clinical use is considered.