Application of metabolomics to acquired hearing loss: Advances and systematic review

Hearing loss poses a significant global public health challenge, seriously jeopardizing both physical and mental health. As an emerging omics technique, metabolomics reflects the metabolic state influenced by both genetic and environmental factors and has been increasingly applied to hearing loss research. This review summarizes the latest advances in metabolomics applied to several types of acquired hearing loss, including age-related hearing loss, noise-induced hearing loss, and sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Through the identification and functional enrichment of differentially expressed metabolites in samples such as inner ear tissues, perilymph, and plasma, metabolomics aims to explore the pathogenesis and identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of acquired hearing loss, providing promising prospects for novel treatments. Evidence we gather from existing studies suggests potential correlations of metabolomic pathways—such as amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and autophagy— with acquired hearing loss. Biomarkers like sphingosine also show their potential to predict its diagnosis and prognosis. Finally, we highlight the importance of standardizing the experimental design and expanding the sample size to enhance the accuracy and comparability of metabolomics results. Integration of metabolomics with multiple techniques and multidimensional information, as well as promotion of clinical transformation may be the future developmental direction in this field.