INTRODUCTION: This study conducted a targeted analysis of metabolites involved in inflammatory, oxidative stress, and neuronal pathways that were previously implicated with sleepiness based on our prior work identifying metabolites in these pathways in persons with OSA. We examine associations between sleep latency (based on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) which is an important indicator of sleep quality and daytime sleepiness, and metabolic concentrations to identify potential mechanisms linking the two. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 88 participants newly diagnosed and untreated for OSA who underwent an overnight in-lab or at home sleep study recruited from the Emory Mechanisms of Sleepiness Symptoms Study (EMOSS). Fasting morning blood plasma samples were collected after the overnight sleep study. A multiple linear regression model was utilized to examine the association between metabolites of interest and sleep latency, controlling for baseline covariates of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), race, smoking status, and apnea hypopnea index (AHI). RESULTS: Among the targeted metabolites, aminoacetone showed a significant association with sleep latency (adjusted mean (SE) = -0.39 (0.11)
p = 0.00072). Participants with sleep onset latency >
60 min had lower levels of aminoacetone than patients with sleep onset latency <
15 min. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to evaluate the relationship between aminoacetone and sleep latency in participants with newly diagnosed OSA. Our findings suggests that aminoacetone is associated with sleep latency in participants with OSA.