Objective The method of metabonomics based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging was used to explore the difference in metabolites of serum and bile, and to analyze the metabolic variation related to the pathogenesis of gallbladder stones between normal people/liver transplantation donors and patients with gallbladder stones. Methods Prospectively collected the serum samples (17 cases) and bile samples (19 cases) in 19 patients with gallbladder stones who underwent surgery in West China Hospital form March 2016 to December 2016, as well as the serum samples of 10 healthy persons and the bile samples of 15 liver transplantation donors at the same time period. The differences of metabolites in the blood and bile in these 3 groups were compared by using 1H-NMR metabonomics technology and chemometric methods. Results The concentrations of valine, alanine, lysine, glutamine, glutamate, pyruvate, creatinine, choline, alpha-glucose, beta-glucose, tyrosine, histidine, and hypoxanthine in serum of patients with gallbladder stones decreased significantly, comparing with those of healthy people without gallbladder stones (P<0.05), while 1, 2-propanediol, acetoacetate, and lactate increased significantly in the serum of patients with gallbladder stones (P<0.05). The concentrations of taurine conjugated bile acids, glycine conjugated bile acids, choline, and phosphatidylcholine decreased significantly in the bile of patients with gallbladder stones when compared with those of liver transplantation donors (P<0.05), while cholesterol increased significantly in the bile of patients with gallbladder stones (P<0.05). Conclusions There are significant differences of the serum and bile metabolites between patients with gallbladder stones and healthy men without gallbladder stones/liver transplantation donors. 1H-NMR metabonomics is helpful to investigate the pathogenesis of gallbladder stones.
ObjectiveTo detect the metabolites of the serum and joint fluid from rabbits’ osteoarthritis model with 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) technique, study the metabolic differences and connections of serum, synovial and cartilage of rabbits after the articular cavity injection of sodium hyaluronate, and explore osteoarthritis and metabolic mechanism in the process of treating sodium hyaluronate using sodium hyaluronate, thus provide new ideas and basis of the specific mechanisms in the treatment of osteoarthritis via sodium hyaluronate.MethodsWe selected 30 healthy New Zealand white rabbits, 6 months old, and randomly divided them into three groups as follows: blank control group, model phosphate buffer saline (PBS) liquid injection group and model injection of sodium hyaluronate group, with 10 rabbits in each group. Ten weeks after surgery, all experimental animals were put to death and observed in correlation studies regarding general condition, imaging examination, and histological examination. Metabolites 1H NMR detection and data preprocessing were performed in the serum and joint fluid samples.ResultsThe results considering general condition, general sample observation, imaging examination and histology indicated advantages in sodium hyaluronate group over PBS group. Metabolomics analysis showed statistically significant changes of metabolites in the serum and joint fluid compared with the PBS group and the blank control group (P<0.05). According to the relevant ways of differences metabolites retrieval, analysis found that the effect of sodium hyaluronate on osteoarthritis might be related to protein biosynthesis, amino acid circulation, the metabolic process of pyruvic acid, gluconeogenesis and other metabolic pathways.ConclusionsBased on the research of 1H-NMR metabolomics, the results suggest that the effect of sodium hyaluronate on osteoarthritis is mainly related with the activation of protein metabolism, abnormal lipid and energy metabolic pathways. This study provides new ideas and basis on the concrete mechanism in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis using sodium hyaluronate.
With the development of life sciences and informatics, bioinformatics is developing as an interdisciplinary subject. Its main application is the relationship between genes and proteins and their expression. With the help of genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics, researchers introduce bioinformatics research methods into fundus disease research. A series of gratifying research results have been achieved including the screening of genetic susceptibility genes, the screening of diagnostic markers, and the exploration of pathogenesis. Genomics has the characteristics of high efficiency and accuracy. It has been used to detect new mutation sites in retinoblastoma and retinal pigment degeneration research, which helps to further improve the pathogenesis of retinal genetic diseases. Transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have high throughput characteristics. They are used to analyze changes in the expression profiles of RNA, proteins, and metabolites in intraocular fluid or isolated cells in disease states, which help to screen biomarkers and further elucidate the pathogenesis. With the advancement of technology, bioinformatics will provide new ideas for the study of ocular fundus diseases.
ObjectiveTandem mass spectrometry is used to observe the changes in amino acids level in peripheral blood of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) of different severity, and explore the related factors that affect the level of amino acids in COPD patients.MethodsA collection of 99 COPD patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University between May 2020 and August 2020 were divided into GOLD Ⅰ/Ⅱ group, GOLD Ⅲ group and GOLD Ⅳ group according to the results of their lung function. Thirty healthy physical examination subjects during the same period were enrolled as a healthy control group. Peripheral amino acids were detected by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS).ResultsThe metabolism of 11 amino acids was correlated with the onset of COPD and the disorder of amino acid metabolism became more significant with the aggravation of the disease, and branched-chain amino acids (leucine, valine) had statistically significant differences in the COPD patients with different GOLD grades (P<0.05 and VIP>1). The difference between glutamate and glutamine was statistically significant only in GOLD Ⅳ stage (P<0.05 and VIP>1). The content of tyrosine and phenylalanine gradually increased with the increase of disease severity, and had significant difference in GOLD stage Ⅳ (P<0.05).ConclusionsCOPD patients with different GOLD grades have obvious amino acid metabolism disorders, including insufficient intake of essential amino acids and increased amino acids related to muscle protein catabolism. Understanding the mechanism between amino acid metabolism and COPD may provide a new direction for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
ObjectiveTo summarize the research results of metabolites of breast cancer based on metabonomics technology, and systematically reviews them in order to provide a new direction for the research of metabolism of breast cancer.MethodBy searching the relevant literatures in recent years, the application of metabonomics in identifying high-risk breast cancer population, monitoring the progress of tumor and evaluating the response of radiotherapy and chemotherapy were analyzed and summarized.ResultsWith the development of high-resolution, high-sensitivity and high-throughput bioanalysis platform technology, metabolomics had been widely used in breast cancer research field by virtue of its unique perspective and technical advantages to more accurately, systematically and dynamically monitor the changes of host metabolites.ConclusionMetabolomics technology provides a new research direction for primary prevention, early screening and diagnosis of breast cancer and optimal treatment strategy selection.
Objective To explore the effect of corn oligopeptide (COP) on dexamethasone-induced muscle atrophy. Methods Forty-nine male Sprague-Dawley rats aged 8 weeks were divided into blank group (n=10) and model group (n=39). The rats in the model group were intraperitoneally injected with dexamethasone (1.0 mg/kg), and the rats in the blank group were injected with normal saline. After 19 days, one rat in the blank group and three rats in the model group were taken to observe whether the model was successfully constructed. After successful modeling, the rats in the model group were randomly divided into model control group, COP low-dose group (COP-L group, 0.5 g/kg), COP medium-dose group (COP-M group, 1.0 g/kg) and COP high-dose group (COP-H group, 2.0 g/kg), with 9 rats in each group. After 33 days, the grip strength of the rats was measured, and then the gastrocnemius, soleus, tibialis anterior and metatarsal muscles were separated and weighed, and muscle fiber diameter, relative expression of Atrogin-1 and MuRF-1 mRNA were measured. Non-targeted metabolomics of gastrocnemius muscle were measured. Results Compared with that in the blank group, the body weight of rats in the model group reduced (P<0.05), and myofibril rupture was observed, indicating that the model was successful. Compared with those in the model control group, the grip strength increased in the COP-L and COP-M groups (P<0.05); the muscle coefficients of gastrocnemius and soleus in the COP-L and COP-H groups increased (P<0.05), and the muscle coefficients of plantaris in the COP-L and COP-M groups increased (P<0.05); the muscle fiber diameter of the tibial anterior muscle increased in the three doses of COP groups (P<0.05), and the muscle fiber diameter of the plantaris muscle increased in the COP-M and COP-H groups (P<0.05); the relative expression of Atrogin-1 mRNA decreased in the three doses of COP groups (P<0.05), while the relative expression of MurF-1 mRNA in the COP-L and COP-H groups decreased (P<0.05). The amino acid synthesis pathway, glycolysis pathway, and acid metabolism pathway were activated in gastrocnemius muscle. Conclusions COP can significantly improve the muscle atrophy induced by dexamethasone. The mechanism may be related to the decrease of Atrogin-1 and MuRF-1 expression in ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and the increase of amino acid biosynthesis.
Diabetic kidney disease, as a common complication of diabetes, is one of the main causes of end-stage renal disease. Because of the rapid progress of its course and the limited means of treatment, it is of great clinical significance to seek biomarkers from early diagnosis for the treatment of diabetic kidney disease. At present, there are limited methods for early diagnosis of diabetic kidney disease. As a widely used research method, metabonomics can detect metabolites in diseases and provide biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. This article summarizes the changes of amino acids, lipids, organic acids and other metabolites in blood or urine of patients with diabetic kidney disease.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus causing severe visual impairment, and it is the main cause of blindness in adults. Metabolic abnormalities play an important role in the occurrence and development of DR, including the abnormal levels of glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and purine metabolism, which indicate that there are disorders of phosphopentose pathway, arginine metabolism pathway, polyol pathway and ascorbic acid pathway in the progression of DR. Metabolomics has great advantages in exploring the pathogenesis and diagnosis of DR, helping to identify the characteristic metabolic changes of DR And discover potential biomarkers. However, the existing metabolomics studies on DR have some limitations, such as the potential biomarkers found in some studies are difficult to verify in other studies due to differences in race, age, gender and sample size. There are few studies on biomarkers at different stages of DR. Therefore, in the future, multi-center and large-scale clinical studies are needed to screen out biomarkers with practical clinical diagnostic value.