Background: Oral Lichen Planus (OLP) is one of the most common oral mucosal diseases. However, the current diagnostic method for OLP has limitations, and sometimes it is easy to be misdiagnosed. Salivary metabolomics may provide new ideas for the diagnosis of OLP.

Objective: To identify the biomarkers for the early detection of OLP.

Methods: A non-targeted metabolomic analysis method was established based on UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS (Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry) to analyze the differential metabolites in saliva samples of patients with OLP and healthy subjects. Saliva samples were collected from 120 OLP patients and 125 healthy subjects.

Results: A total of 19 differential metabolites were identified, including 6 amino acid metabolites, 2 carnitines, 2 lipid metabolites and 9 other metabolites. The integrated biomarkers were constructed by 3 metabolites according to Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC). Meanwhile, multiple metabolic pathways were found to be involved in the occurrence and development of OLP.

Conclusion: Metabolomics can be used to characterize the characteristics of metabolic disorders in patients with OLP, which is also helpful to the early diagnosis of OLP and reveal the pathological process of OLP.

背景：口腔扁平苔藓（OLP）是最常见的口腔黏膜疾病之一。然而，目前OLP的诊断方法存在局限性，有时容易被误诊。唾液代谢组学可能为OLP的诊断提供新思路。

目的：确定早期检测OLP的生物标志物。

方法：建立基于UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS（超高效液相色谱-四极杆/轨道阱高分辨率质谱）的非靶向代谢组学分析方法，分析OLP患者和健康受试者唾液样本中的差异代谢物。唾液样本采集自 120 名 OLP 患者和 125 名健康受试者。

结果：共鉴定出19种差异代谢物，其中氨基酸代谢物6种，肉碱2种，脂质代谢物2种，其他代谢物9种。综合生物标志物由 3 种代谢物根据接受者操作特征 (ROC) 构建。同时，发现多种代谢途径参与OLP的发生发展。

结论：代谢组学可用于表征OLP患者代谢紊乱的特征，也有助于OLP的早期诊断，揭示OLP的病理过程。