No abstract

Similar symptoms of the different types of arthritis have continued to confound the clinical diagnosis and represent a clinical dilemma making treatment choices with a more personalized or generalized approach. Here we report a mass spectrometry-based metabolic phenotyping study to identify the global metabolic defects associated with arthritis as well as metabolic signatures of four major types of arthritis--rheumatoid arthritis (n = 27), osteoarthritis (n = 27), ankylosing spondylitis (n = 27), and gout (n = 33)--compared with healthy control subjects (n = 60). A total of 196 metabolites were identified from serum samples using a combined gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF MS) and ultraperformance liquid chromatography quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF MS). A global metabolic profile is identified from all arthritic patients, suggesting that there are common metabolic defects resulting from joint inflammation and lesion. Meanwhile, differentially expressed serum metabolites are identified constituting an unique metabolic signature of each type of arthritis that can be used as biomarkers for diagnosis and patient stratification. The results highlight the applicability of metabonomic phenotyping as a novel diagnostic tool for arthritis complementary to existing clinical modalities.

No abstract

The Asian music frog genus Nidirana is widely distributed in East and Southeastern Asia. Systematic profiles of the group remain on debate, and cryptic species are expected especially in the species with wide distributional range. Here, we describe a new species of the genus from Southwestern China. Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA supported the new species as an independent clade nested into the Nidirana clade and sister to N. hainanensis. Morphologically, the new species could be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: a large body size in males (SVL > 49 mm); the presence of lateroventral grooves both on fingers and toes; relative finger lengths: II < IV < I < III; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the level between eye and nostril when leg stretched forward; a pair of subgular internal vocal sacs at corners of throat in males; nuptial pad present on the inner side of base of fingers I and II in males in breading season; webbing formula: I 2 –21/3 II 2 –22/3 III 31/2 –32/3 IV 32/3 –3V. The findings provided a better knowledge on phylogenetic assignments of the genus Nidirana, and indicated future deeper investigations necessarily for exploring systematic settings of the group.