A methodology for elucidating regulatory mechanisms leading to changes in lipid profiles

Introduction It is difficult to elucidate the metabolic and regulatory factors causing lipidome perturbations. Objectives This work simplifies this process. Methods A method has been developed to query an online holistic lipid metabolic network (of 7923 metabolites) to extract the pathways that connect the input list of lipids. Results The output enables pathway visualisation and the querying of other databases to identify potential regulators. When used to a study a plasma lipidome dataset of polycystic ovary syndrome, 14 enzymes were identified, of which 3 are linked to ELAVL1—an mRNA stabiliser. Conclusion This method provides a simplified approach to identifying potential regulators causing lipid-profile perturbations.