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BackgroundGout is a metabolic disease and is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis affecting men. However, the pathogenesis of gout is still uncertain, and novel biomarkers are needed for early prediction and diagnosis of gout. The aim of this study was to develop a systemic metabolic profile of patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia (HUA) and gout by using a metabolomics approach, and find potential pathophysiological mechanisms of and markers of predisposition to gout.MethodsSerum samples were collected from 149 subjects, including 50 patients with HUA, 49 patients with gout and 50 healthy controls. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy combined with principal components analysis and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis were used to distinguish between samples from patients and healthy controls. Clinical measurements and pathway analysis were also performed to contribute to understanding of the metabolic change.ResultsBy serum metabolic profiling, 21 metabolites including lipids and amino acids were significantly altered in patients with HUA or gout. The levels of identified biomarkers together with clinical data showed apparent alteration trends in patients with HUA or gout compared to healthy individuals. According to pathway analysis, three and five metabolic pathways were remarkably perturbed in patients with HUA or gout, respectively. These enriched pathways involve in lipid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, amino acids metabolism and energy metabolism.ConclusionsTaken together, we identified the biomarker signature for HUA and gout, which provides biochemical insights into the metabolic alteration, and identified a continuous progressive axis of development from HUA to gout.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13075-018-1600-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Benzene dye intermediates (BDI) wastewater has caused major environmental concern due to its potential carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects.

Strong optical excitation of plasmonic nanostructures may induce simultaneous interband and intraband electronic transitions. However, interaction mechanisms between interband, intraband, and plasmon‐band processes have not been thoroughly understood. In particular, optical‐heating‐induced lattice expansion, which definitely leads to shift of the Fermi level, has not been taken into account in plasmonic studies. Here, it is shown that plasmonic bandedge shift is responsible for the optical modulation on the boundary between plasmonic electron oscillation and interband transitions via investigations on gold nanofilms and nanoparticles. Strong optical excitation induces transient depletion of the conduction band just below the Fermi level through intraband transitions, while the subsequent lattice heating induces transient thermal expansion and hence lowers the Fermi level. Both effects reduce the threshold for interband transitions and therefore push the plasmonic bandedge to the red. These discoveries introduce a first correlation between plasmonic response and optical excitation induced thermal expansion of lattices. The revealed Fermi‐level adjustment mechanism allows alignment of electronic levels at the metal–semiconductor interfaces, which applies to all conductive materials and renders reliable physics for the design of plasmonic or optoelectronic devices.