No abstract

GC-MS-based metabolomic analysis of the urinary metabolome suggests to have the required sensitivity and specificity to gain insight into ASD phenotypes and aid a personalized network-based medicine approach.

Placental metabolome analysis of obese pregnancies showed differences in metabolites involved in antioxidant defenses, nucleotide production, as well as lipid synthesis and energy production, supporting a shift towards higher placental metabolism. OB placentas also showed a specific fatty acids profile suggesting a disruption of LC-PUFA biomagnification. This study can lay the foundation to further metabolomic placental characterization in maternal obesity. Metabolic signatures in obese placentas may reflect changes occurring in the intrauterine metabolic environment, which may affect the development of adult diseases.

Perinatal asphyxia is defined as an oxygen deprivation that occurs around the time of birth, and may be caused by several perinatal events. This medical condition affects some four million neonates worldwide per year, causing the death of one million subjects. In most cases, infants successfully recover from hypoxia episodes; however, some patients may develop HIE, leading to permanent neurological conditions or impairment of different organs and systems. Given its multifactor dependency, the timing, severity and outcome of this disease, mainly assessed through Sarnat staging, are of difficult evaluation. Moreover, although the latest newborn resuscitation guideline suggests the use of a 21% oxygen concentration or room air, such an approach is still under debate. Therefore, the pathological mechanism is still not clear and a golden standard treatment has yet to be defined. In this context, metabolomics, a new discipline that has described important perinatal issues over the last years, proved to be a useful tool for the monitoring, the assessment, and the identification of potential biomarkers associated with asphyxia events. This review covers metabolomics research on perinatal asphyxia condition, examining in detail the studies reported both on animal and human models.

Discovered over a century ago, Beckmann rearrangement is still today fully compliant with all the green chemistry principles and consistent with the key aspects of sustainable development. Herein, we report on a sustainable mechanochemical procedure allowing the design of new amide frameworks via an eco-efficient “cut-and-paste” process of C–C and C–N bonds on the oxime backbone. We combined inexpensive and readily available reagents, such as p-tosyl imidazole (p-Ts-Im) and oxalic acid, to prepare smoothly and in good to high yields a library of structurally different amides, including value-added marketed compounds such as ε-caprolactam and the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) paracetamol. This solvent-free mechanochemical procedure has also been optimized and successfully extended to several ketones serving as oxime precursors.

We postulate that the increase in plasma and consequently urinary inositol may constitute a marker of altered glucose metabolism during fetal development in both IUGR and LGA newborns.

Lymphoma defines a group of different diseases. This study examined pre-treatment plasma samples from 66 adult patients (aged 20–74) newly diagnosed with any lymphoma subtype, and 96 frequency matched population controls. We used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to compare the metabolic profile by case/control status and across the major lymphoma subtypes. We conducted univariate and multivariate analyses, and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). When compared to the controls, statistically validated models were obtained for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), multiple myeloma (MM), and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), but not follicular lymphoma (FL). The metabolomic analysis highlighted interesting differences between lymphoma patients and population controls, allowing the discrimination between pathologic and healthy subjects: Important metabolites, such as hypoxanthine and elaidic acid, were more abundant in all lymphoma subtypes. The small sample size of the individual lymphoma subtypes prevented obtaining PLS-DA validated models, although specific peculiar features of each subtype were observed; for instance, fatty acids were most represented in MM and HL patients, while 2-aminoadipic acid, 2-aminoheptanedioic acid, erythritol, and threitol characterized DLBCL and CLL. Metabolomic analysis was able to highlight interesting differences between lymphoma patients and population controls, allowing the discrimination between pathologic and healthy subjects. Further studies are warranted to understand whether the peculiar metabolic patterns observed might serve as early biomarkers of lymphoma.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) has been confirmed to be the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in males and the second in females. We investigated the blood plasma metabolome in CRC patients and in healthy adults to elucidate the role of monosaccharides, amino acids, and their respective metabolic pathways as prognostic factors in patients with CRC.Methods: Fifteen patients with CRC and nine healthy adults were enrolled in the study and their blood plasma samples analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Univariate Student's t-test, multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were conducted on MetaboAnalyst 4.0. The analysis of metabolic profiles was carried out by the web-based extension Metabolite Sets Enrichment Analysis (MSEA).Results: Overall, 125 metabolites were identified in plasma samples by GC-MS. In CRC patient samples, nine metabolites, including D-mannose and fructose, were significantly more abundant than in controls; conversely, eleven amino derivatives were less abundant, including methionine, valine, lysine, and proline.Methionine was significantly less abundant in died patients compared with survivors. The most significantly altered metabolic pathways in CRC patients are those involving monosaccharides (primarily the catabolic pathway of fructose and D-mannose), and amino acids (primarily methionine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine). Conclusions:The abundance of D-mannose in CRC patient samples contributes to inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, while the abundance of fructose may be consistent either with low consumption of fructose by aerobic glycolysis within cancer cells or with a high bioavailability of fructose from diet. The reduction in methionine concentration may be related to increased activity of the threonine and methionine catabolic pathways, confirmed by high levels of α-hydroxybutyrate.