Untargeted Metabolomics Reveals Molecular Effects of Ketogenic Diet on Healthy and Tumor Xenograft Mouse Models.

The application of ketogenic diet (KD) (high fat/low carbohydrate/adequate protein) as an auxiliary cancer therapy is a field of growing attention. KD provides sufficient energy supply for healthy cells, while possibly impairing energy production in highly glycolytic tumor cells. Moreover, KD regulates insulin and tumor related growth factors (like insulin growth factor-1, IGF-1). In order to provide molecular evidence for the proposed additional inhibition of tumor growth when combining chemotherapy with KD, we applied untargeted quantitative metabolome analysis on a spontaneous breast cancer xenograft mouse model, using MDA-MB-468 cells. Healthy mice and mice bearing breast cancer xenografts and receiving cyclophosphamide chemotherapy were compared after treatment with control diet and KD. Metabolomic profiling was performed on plasma samples, applying high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Statistical analysis revealed metabolic fingerprints comprising numerous significantly regulated features in the group of mice bearing breast cancer. This fingerprint disappeared after treatment with KD, resulting in recovery to the metabolic status observed in healthy mice receiving control diet. Moreover, amino acid metabolism as well as fatty acid transport were found to be affected by both the tumor and the applied KD. Our results provide clear evidence of a significant molecular effect of adjuvant KD in the context of tumor growth inhibition and suggest additional mechanisms of tumor suppression beyond the proposed constrain in energy supply of tumor cells.

Occurrence of 2-methylthiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid, a condensation product of cysteine and acetaldehyde, in human blood as a consequence of ethanol consumption.

Acetaldehyde is a strongly electrophilic compound that is endogenously produced as a first intermediate in oxidative ethanol metabolism. Its high reactivity towards biogenic nucleophiles has toxicity as a consequence. Acetaldehyde readily undergoes a non-enzymatic condensation reaction and consecutive ring formation with cysteine to form 2-methylthiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid (MTCA). For analytical purposes, N-acetylation of MTCA was required for stabilization and to enable its quantification by reversed-phase chromatography combined with electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. Qualitative screening of post mortem blood samples with negative blood alcohol concentration (BAC) mostly showed low basal levels of MTCA. In BAC-positive post mortem samples, but not in corresponding urine specimens, strongly increased levels were present. To estimate the association between ethanol consumption and the occurrence of MTCA in human blood, the time curves of BAC and MTCA concentration were determined after a single oral dose of 0.5 g ethanol per kilogram of body weight. The blood elimination kinetics of MTCA was slower than that of ethanol. The peak concentration of MTCA (12.6 mg L(-1)) was observed 4 h after ethanol intake (BAC 0.07‰) and MTCA was still detectable after 13 h. Although intermediary acetaldehyde scavenging by formation of MTCA is interesting from a toxicological point of view, lack of hydrolytic stability under physiological conditions may hamper the use of MTCA as a quantitative marker of acetaldehyde exposure, such as resulting from alcohol consumption.

Methoxyquinoline labeling--a new strategy for the enantioseparation of all chiral proteinogenic amino acids in 1-dimensional liquid chromatography using fluorescence and tandem mass spectrometric detection.

The determination of trace amounts of d-amino acids (d-AAs) even in tissue samples of higher developed animals, mammals and humans has opened a wide field of biological questions to be investigated. d-Ala, d-Asp and d-Ser have already been identified to exhibit key functions in cellular regulation processes [1-4]. The abundance of trace amounts of these and also of other d-AAs in various biological fluids and in tissue samples is still being investigated. We herein present a facile derivatization method for amino acids using 6-methoxyquinoline-4-carboxylic acid-succinimide ester (MQ-OSu) to yield the corresponding stable N-acyl-amino acids (MQ-AAs). Labeling with the MQ tag supports the enantioseparation of all 19 chiral proteinogenic amino acids on anion exchanger type chiral stationary phases, introduces fluorescence activity and particularly promotes sensitive electrospray tandem mass spectrometric detection. Limit of detection values (LOD) for MQ-l-Ala in water were 1.25 µmol L(-1) with fluorescence detection and 0.015 µmol L(-1) with MS in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The applicability of this method for the analysis of MQ-d-AAs in biological fluids has been demonstrated.

Chemoselective and enantioselective analysis of proteinogenic amino acids utilizing N-derivatization and 1-D enantioselective anion-exchange chromatography in combination with tandem mass spectrometric detection.

D-Amino acid analysis in biological samples still poses a challenge to analytical chemists. In higher developed species trace amounts of d-amino acids have to be detected in vast excesses of the corresponding L-enantiomers. This method utilizes an easy-to-carry-out derivatization step on the amino group with an iron ferrocenyl propionate hydroxy succinimide ester followed by one-dimensional enantioselective anion exchange chromatography with cinchona alkaloid based chiral stationary phases (CSPs). MS detection is carried out in the highly sensitive SRM (selected reaction monitoring) mode, which allows a chemoselective differentiation of amino acid derivatives as well as their enantioselective separation in one step. Application of this method allows LOD (limits of detection) in the low µmol L(-1) range and baseline enantioseparation for all proteinogenic amino acids except for Pro, Arg and His. The D-enantiomers of isomeric Leu and Ile were separated chromatographically and pose an example for the complementary selectivities of LC and MS. A successful application of this procedure to unprocessed human urine indicated the eligibility to analyse biological samples.