Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the commonest adult-onset motor neuron disorder, is characterized by a survival span of only 2–5 years after onset. Relevant biomarkers or specific metabolic signatures would provide powerful tools for the management of ALS. The main objective of this study was to investigate the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lipidomic signature of ALS patients by mass spectrometry to evaluate the diagnostic and predictive values of the profile. We showed that ALS patients (n = 40) displayed a highly significant specific CSF lipidomic signature compared to controls (n = 45). Phosphatidylcholine PC(36:4), higher in ALS patients (p = 0.0003) was the most discriminant molecule, and ceramides and glucosylceramides were also highly relevant. Analysis of targeted lipids in the brain cortex of ALS model mice confirmed the role of some discriminant lipids such as PC. We also obtained good models for predicting the variation of the ALSFRS-r score from the lipidome baseline, with an accuracy of 71% in an independent set of patients. Significant predictions of clinical evolution were found to be correlated to sphingomyelins and triglycerides with long-chain fatty acids. Our study, which shows extensive lipid remodelling in the CSF of ALS patients, provides a new metabolic signature of the disease and its evolution with good predictive performance.

We confirmed the systemic alteration of both the redox and the inflammation status in ALS patients, and we observed a link with some clinical parameters. These promising results encourage us to pursue this study with collection of combined oxidative stress and inflammatory markers.