Malignant melanoma, characterized by its ability to metastasize to other organs, is responsible for 90% of skin cancer mortality. To investigate alterations in the cellular metabolome and lipidome related to melanoma metastasis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and direct infusion-mass spectrometry (DI-MS)-based metabolic and lipidomic profiling were performed on extracts of normal human melanocyte (HEMn-LP), low metastatic melanoma (A375, G361), and highly metastatic melanoma (A2058, SK-MEL-28) cell lines. In this study, metabolomic analysis identified aminomalonic acid as a novel potential biomarker to discriminate between different stages of melanoma metastasis. Uptake and release of major metabolites as hallmarks of cancer were also measured between high and low metastatic melanoma cells. Lipid analysis showed a progressive increase in phosphatidylinositol (PI) species with saturated and monounsaturated fatty acyl chains, including 16:0/18:0, 16:0/18:1, 18:0/18:0, and 18:0/18:1, with increasing metastatic potential of melanoma cells, defining these lipids as possible biomarkers. In addition, a partial-least-squares projection to latent structure regression (PLSR) model for the prediction of metastatic properties of melanoma was established, and central metabolic and lipidomic pathways involved in the increased motility and metastatic potential of melanoma cells were identified as therapeutic targets. These results could be used to diagnose and control of melanoma metastasis.

Plants have the natural ability to withstand stress conditions through metabolic adjustments. The present study aimed at investigating the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO NPs) application (0, 25, 50, 150, 250, 500, and 750 mg kg) in phosphorus-deficient soil in terms of growth responses, P contents, and metabolic alterations in rice. TiO NPs application increased shoot length up to 14.5%. Phosphorus contents in rice roots, shoots, and grains were increased by 2.6-, 2.4-, and 1.3-fold, respectively, at 750 mg kg of TiO NPs. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics revealed increased levels of amino acids, palmitic acid, and glycerol content in grains resulting from plants grown in 750 mg kg TiO NPs-treated soil. Furthermore, no translocation of TiO NPs from the treated soil to rice grains was detected by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), which suggests no risk of TiO NPs intake via grain consumption. The observed data indicates the strong relationship among NPs application, P contents, and metabolic alterations.

Metabolomics has been used as a powerful tool for the analysis and quality assessment of the natural product (NP)-derived medicines. It is increasingly being used in the quality control and standardization of NP-derived medicines because they are composed of hundreds of natural compounds. The most common techniques that are used in metabolomics consist of NMR, GC-MS, and LC-MS in combination with multivariate statistical analyses including principal components analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Currently, the quality control of the NP-derived medicines is usually conducted using HPLC and is specified by one or two indicators. To create a superior quality control framework and avoid adulterated drugs, it is necessary to be able to determine and establish standards based on multiple ingredients using metabolic profiling and fingerprinting. Therefore, the application of various analytical tools in the quality control of NP-derived medicines forms the major part of this review. Veregen® (Medigene AG, Planegg/Martinsried, Germany), which is the first botanical prescription drug approved by US Food and Drug Administration, is reviewed as an example that will hopefully provide future directions and perspectives on metabolomics technologies available for the quality control of NP-derived medicines.

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Fermented vegetable juices have gained attention due to their various beneficial effects on human health. In this study, we employed gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, direct infusion-mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry to identify useful metabolites, lipids, and carotenoids in vegetable juice (VJ) fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum HY7712, Lactobacillus plantarum HY7715, Lactobacillus helveticus HY7801, and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis HY8002. A total of 41 metabolites, 24 lipids, and 4 carotenoids were detected in the fermented and non-fermented VJ (control). The lycopene, α-carotene, and β-carotene levels were higher in VJ fermented with L. plantarum strains (HY7712 and HY7715) than in the control. Proline content was also elevated in VJ fermented with HY7715. Uracil, succinic acid, and α-carotene concentration was increased in VJ fermented with HY7801, while glycine and lycopene levels were raised in VJ fermented with HY8002. This study confirmed that each probiotic strain has distinctive characteristics and produces unique changes to metabolic profiles of VJ during fermentation. Our results suggest that probiotic-fermented VJ is a promising functional beverage that contains more beneficial metabolites and carotenoids than commercial non-fermented VJ.

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