The Eurecat technology centre is providing new insights into the transition to menopause with the identification of more than 140 potential biomarkers in a preclinical study carried out in collaboration with the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). These findings could pave the way for the design of targeted interventions to improve women’s health during the perimenopausal and postmenopausal stages.
Perimenopause is the transitional phase marked by the onset of irregular menstrual cycles and female reproductive senescence. It may be accompanied by vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes, migraines or insomnia, among others, as well as health alterations including an increased risk of osteoporosis, obesity or metabolic disorders. These conditions may become more pronounced during postmenopause, which is characterized by the permanent cessation of menstrual cycles.
Having biomarkers that allow the identification of the onset of perimenopause before the appearance of symptoms and metabolic alterations that often accompany this process of reproductive ageing “opens up new opportunities to design interventions to preserve endocrine and metabolic functions in perimenopausal women and to improve vasomotor symptoms, osteoporosis and the metabolic risks associated with postmenopause, although clinical trials would be needed to validate the results obtained,” explains Antoni Caimari, Director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area. The study provides new scientific data on the menopausal stage, “as little is known about the mechanisms associated with the menopausal transition, and advancing knowledge in this area can contribute to improving women’s health and well-being,” adds Antoni Caimari.
Through the study, more than 140 metabolites have been identified in blood that change when moving from a regular to an irregular cycle and that anticipate changes in blood levels of progesterone, luteinising hormone (LH), oestradiol and cholesterol. “This would make it possible to use them as potential multivariate biomarkers of the alterations that may occur during menopause before the first symptoms appear,” explains researcher Julio Baudín, first author of the article presenting the study results, which forms part of his doctoral thesis carried out at Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit in collaboration with URV.
The analysis of these metabolic compounds has been made possible thanks to “the application of lipidomics, an omics science that enables large-scale study of cellular lipid pathways and networks in biological systems, allowing a comprehensive understanding of the various lipid species and their roles in health and disease,” highlights Antoni del Pino, researcher and head of metabolomics at the Centre for Omic Sciences (COS), a joint unit of Eurecat and URV.
The results of the preclinical study are part of a scientific article published in the journal Clinical Science, co-authored by researchers from Eurecat, Rovira i Virgili University and the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre.
