The Versatility and Diagnostic Potential of VOC Profiling for Noninfectious Diseases.

A variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are produced and emitted by the human body every day. The identity and concentration of these VOCs reflect an individual's metabolic condition. Information regarding the production and origin of VOCs, however, has yet to be congruent among the scientific community. This review article focuses on the recent investigations of the source and detection of biological VOCs as a potential for noninvasive discrimination between healthy and diseased individuals. Analyzing the changes in the components of VOC profiles could provide information regarding the molecular mechanisms behind disease as well as presenting new approaches for personalized screening and diagnosis. VOC research has prioritized the study of cancer, resulting in many research articles and reviews being written on the topic. This review summarizes the information gained about VOC cancer studies over the past 10 years and looks at how this knowledge correlates with and can be expanded to new and upcoming fields of VOC research, including neurodegenerative and other noninfectious diseases. Recent advances in analytical techniques have allowed for the analysis of VOCs measured in breath, urine, blood, feces, and skin. New diagnostic approaches founded on sensor-based techniques allow for cheaper and quicker results, and we compare their diagnostic dependability with gas chromatography- and mass spectrometry-based techniques. The future of VOC analysis as a clinical practice and the challenges associated with this transition are also discussed and future research priorities are summarized.

Investigation of insulin resistance through a multiorgan microfluidic organ-on-chip.

The development of hepatic insulin resistance (IR) is a critical factor in developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), where insulin fails to inhibit hepatic glucose production but retains its capacity to promote hepatic de novo lipogenesis leading to hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia. Improving insulin sensitivity can be effective in preventing and treating T2D. However, selective control of glucose and lipid synthesis has been difficult. It is known that excess white adipose tissue is detrimental to insulin sensitivity, whereas brown adipose tissue transplantation can restore it in diabetic mice. However, challenges remain in our understanding of liver-adipose communication because the confounding effects of hypothalamic regulation of metabolic function cannot be ruled out in previous studies. There is a lack ofin vitromodels that use primary cells to study cellular-crosstalk under insulin resistant conditions. Building upon our previous work on the microfluidic primary liver and adipose organ-on-chips, we report for the first time, the development of an integrated insulin resistant liver-adipose (white and brown) organ-on-chip. The design of the microfluidic device was carried out using computational fluid dynamics; the experimental studies were conducted by carrying out detailed biochemical analysis RNA-seq analysis on both cell types. Further, we tested the hypothesis that brown adipocytes (BAC) regulated both hepatic insulin sensitivity and de novo lipogenesis. Our results show that BAC effectively restored insulin sensitivity and supressed hepatic glucose production and de novo lipogenesis suggesting that the experimental platform could be useful for identifying potential therapeutics to treat IR and diabetes.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel mutual prodrugs (hybrid drugs) of all-trans-retinoic acid and histone deacetylase inhibitors with enhanced anticancer activities in breast and prostate cancer cells in vitro.

Novel mutual prodrugs (MPs) of ATRA (all- trans-retinoic acid) and HDIs (histone deacetylase inhibitors) ( 10, 13, 17- 19) connected via glycine acyloxyalkyl carbamate linker (AC linker) or through a benzyl ester linker (1,6-elimination linker) were rationally designed and synthesized. Most of our novel MPs were potent inhibitors of growth of several hormone-insensitive/drug resistant breast cancer cell lines and the hormone-insensitive PC-3 prostate cancer cell line. The novel MPs exhibited differential antiproliferative potencies in both MDA-MB-231 and PC-3 cell lines. Whereas 19 (VNLG/124) [4-(butanoyloxymethyl)phenyl(2 E,4 E,6 E,8 E)-3,7-dimethyl-9-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-1-enyl)nona-2,4,6,8-tetraenoate] with a GI 50 of 10 nM was the most potent MP versus the MDA-MB-231 cells, 13 (VNLG/66) [{ N-[ N-{2-[4-{[3-pyridylmethoxy)carbonyamino]methyl}phenyl) carbonylamino]phenyl} carbamoylcarbamoyloxy}methyl(2 E,4 E,6 E,8 E)-3,7-dimethyl-9-(2,6,6-trimethyl cyclohex-1-enyl)nona-2,4,6,8-tetraenoate] with a GI 50 = 40 nM was the most potent versus the PC-3 cells. MP 19 exhibited the most benefit because its GI 50 of 10 nM versus MDA-MB-231 cells was remarkably 1085-fold lower than that of parent ATRA and over 100000-fold lower than butyric acid (BA).

Retinoic acid metabolism blocking agents (RAMBAs) for treatment of cancer and dermatological diseases.

The naturally occurring retinoids and their synthetic analogs play a key role in differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis, and their use/potential in oncology, dermatology and a variety of diseases are well documented. This review focuses on the role of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), the principal endogenous metabolite of vitamin A (retinol) and its metabolism in oncology and dermatology. ATRA has been used successfully in differentiated therapy of acute promyelocytic leukemia, skin cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and also in the treatment of acne and psoriasis. However, its usefulness is limited by the rapid emergence of acquired ATRA resistance involving multifactoral mechanisms. A key mechanism of resistance involves ATRA-induced catabolism of ATRA. Thus, a novel strategy to overcome the limitation associated with exogenous ATRA therapy has been to modulate and/or increase the levels of endogenous ATRA by inhibiting the cytochrome P450-dependent ATRA-4-hydroxylase enzymes (particularly CYP26s) responsible for ATRA metabolism. These inhibitors are also referred to as retinoic acid metabolism blocking agents (RAMBAs). This review highlights development in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of RAMBAs. Major emphasis is given to liarozole, the most studied and only RAMBA in clinical use and also the new RAMBAs in development and with clinical potential.