Discrimination and prediction of Qingzhuan tea storage year using quantitative chemical profile combined with multivariate analysis: Advantages of MRMHR based targeted quantification metabolomics.

The duration of storage significantly influences the quality and market value of Qingzhuan tea (QZT). Herein, a high-resolution multiple reaction monitoring (MRMHR) quantitative method for markers of QZT storage year was developed. Quantitative data alongside multivariate analysis were employed to discriminate and predict the storage year of QZT. Furthermore, the content of the main biochemical ingredients, catechins and alkaloids, and free amino acids (FAA) were assessed for this purpose. The results show that targeted marker-based models exhibited superior discrimination and prediction performance among four datasets. The R2Xcum, R2Ycum and Q2cum of orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis discrimination model were close to 1. The correlation coefficient (R2) and the root mean square error of prediction of the QZT storage year prediction model were 0.9906 and 0.63, respectively. This study provides valuable insights into tea storage quality and highlights the potential application of targeted markers in food quality evaluation.

Revealing the chemical differences and their application in the storage year prediction of Qingzhuan tea by SWATH-MS based metabolomics analysis.

It's generally believed that the longer the storage, the better the quality of dark tea, but the chemical differences of Qingzhuan tea (QZT) with different storage years is still unclear. Herein, in this work, an untargeted metabolomic approach based on SWATH-MS was established to investigate the differential compounds of QZT with 0-9 years' storage time. These QZT samples were roughly divided into two categories by principal component analysis (PCA). After orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), 18 differential compounds were putatively identified as chemical markers for the storage year variation of QZT. Heatmap visualization showed that the contents of catechins, fatty acids, and some phenolic acids significantly reduced, flavonoid glycosides, triterpenoids, and 8-C N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone-substituted flavan-3-ols (EPSFs) increased with the increase of storage time. Furthermore, these chemical markers were verified by the peak areas corresponding to MS2 ions from SWATH-MS. Based on the extraction chromatographic peak areas of MS and MS2 ions, a duration time prediction model was built for QZT with correlation coefficient R2 of 0.9080 and 0.9701, and RMSEP value of 0.85 and 1.24, respectively. This study reveals the chemical differences of QZT with different storage years and provides a theoretical basis for the quality evaluation of stored dark tea.

[Progress and perspective of silkworm as a model of human diseases for drug screening].

As a typical representative of Lepidopteran insects, the silkworm, Bombyx mori, has numerous advantages, such as simple husbandry,highly prolific nature, short generation time, easily handled to be operated with moderate body size, clear genetic background and abundant mutation resources. Silkworm has not only been studied by the geneticists, but also been used as a new laboratory animal model of human disease and drug screening. There is a plenty of genetic resources in silkworm, some of which could be used as models of human genetic diseases, such as Phenylketonuria, Parkinson's disease, Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome and so on. Silkworm has also played a significant role in the study of pathogenesis of human pathogenic microorganisms. Moreover, silkworm could be used to evaluate the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics properties and safety of a new drug comprehensively and systematically. At the same time, it can be used in the high throughput drug screening assays to shorten the period of the new drug research and development. This review summarizes that the silkworm is an excellent model in the drug screening assays, and has a potential in application to the large-scale drug screening.