GC/MS-based metabolomics reveals fatty acid biosynthesis and cholesterol metabolism in cell lines infected with influenza A virus

Metabolomics is the downstream of systems biology and has drawn significant interest for studying the metabolic networks from cells to organisms. To profile the metabolites in two different cell lines (A549 and AGS) infected with influenza A virus, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was employed. Some differentiating metabolites in the cell lines were tentatively identified using reference library, interpreted and visualized by applying principal components analysis (PCA) and cluster heat map. Consequently, metabolic flux profiling allowed the differentiation of fatty acid biosynthesis and cholesterol metabolism during viral replication in the cell lines. The change in fatty acid turnover was also observed. Metabolomics investigation also revealed the different responses between A549 and AGS cell lines to the virus infection. From the pattern recognition results, AGS cell line might be more susceptible to influenza A virus. Regarding the fact that AGS is a poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma cell line whereas A549 is a relatively differentiated lung tumor one, it is speculated that viral replication might be associated with the cell differentiations.