Untargeted Metabolomics Analysis of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Discovers Dysregulated Metabolic Pathways and Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers.

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most fatal diseases worldwide. Because early diagnosis is difficult, ESCC is mostly diagnosed at an advanced stage, leading to a poor overall prognosis. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences between plasma metabolic profiles in ESCC patients and healthy controls and to establish a diagnostic model of ESCC. Methods: In this study, a cohort of 310 subjects, containing 140 ESCC patients and 170 healthy controls (HC), was recruited. Participants were randomly separated into a training set (80 ESCCs, 80 HCs) and a validation set (60 ESCCs, 90 HCs) and their plasma metabolomics profiles were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) technique. Univariate statistical analysis and multivariate analysis (MVA) methods were used to identify differential metabolites. Finally, the dysregulated pathways associated with ESCC were further explored and the diagnostic performance of the biomarker panel was evaluated. Results: Metabolic analyses identified 34 significant metabolites involved in the metabolism of amino acids, phospholipids, fatty acids, purine, and choline. Farthermore, an effective diagnostic model for ESCC was constructed based on eight metabolites. This panel of biomarkers consisted of hypoxanthine, proline betaine, indoleacrylic acid, inosine, 9-decenoylcarnitine, tetracosahexaenoic acid, LPE (20:4), and LPC (20:5). The model was verified and evaluated in the validation set. The AUC value of the ROC curve was 0.991(95% CI: 0.981-1.000, CI, Confidence interval), with a sensitivity (SE) of 98.8% and a specificity (SP) of 94.9% for the training set and 0.965(95% CI: 0.936-0.993), with a SE of 88.3% and a SP of 88.9% for the validation set. Among them, three biomarkers, indoleacrylic acid, LPC (20:5), and LPE (20:4), exhibited a trend associated with the ESCC progression. Conclusions: Our study identified a novel plasma biomarker panel, which clearly distinguishes ESCC patients and provides insight into the mechanisms of ESCC. This finding may form the basis for the development of a minimally invasive method for ESCC detection.

Chinese herbal medicine for epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor-induced skin rash in patients with malignancy: An updated meta-analysis of 23 randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and evaluate the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) therapy for epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor (EGFRI)-induced skin rash in patients with malignancy. METHODS: The electronic databases of Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Chinese Sci-tech Journal, Wan Fang, and Chinese Biomedicine were searched from their inception to 31 st September 2018. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effectiveness of CHM in improving EGFRI-induced skin rash were analyzed by Review Manager 5.3. RESULTS: Twenty-three eligible RCTs with 1392 participants were identified and divided into four subgroups according to different treatment rules of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and different controls. CHM (dispel wind, clear heat, and eliminate dampness), the representative formula Xiao Feng San, is more effective than western medicine in improving and curing skin rash(RR,95%CI: 1.46,1.26-1.70 and 1.65,1.24-2.20); CHM (nourish yin, clear heat, and remove toxin for eliminating blood stasis), the representative formula Yang Fei Xiao Zhen Tang, is more effective than western medicine in improving skin rash(RR,95%CI: 1.45,1.10-1.92). CHM (clear lung and purge heat, cool blood, and remove toxic substance) is more effective in improving and curing skin rash, compared with the western medicine group (RR,95%CI: 1.42,1.21-1.67 and 2.43,1.23-4.81) or the blank control group(RR,95%CI:2.37,1.21-4.63 and 2.98,1.20-7.41). The side effects of CHM are all mild and tolerable. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the results of the study are stable. The asymmetry funnel plots described that publication bias of this research may exist. CONCLUSION: The limited evidence suggests that CHM exhibits clinical effectiveness and good safety on the treatment of EGFRI-induced skin rash. Large-sample RCTs are required to further determine the effectiveness of CHM.

Polyphyllin VI induces apoptosis and autophagy in human osteosarcoma cells by modulation of ROS/JNK activation.

PURPOSE: Polyphyllin VI, a main active saponin isolated from traditional medicinal plant Paris polyphylla, has exhibited antitumor activities in several cancer cell lines. In the present study, we investigated the antitumor effect of Polyphyllin VI against human osteosarcoma cells (U2OS) and the underlying molecular mechanisms. METHODS: The U2OS cell lines were used to determine the antiproliferative effect of Polyphyllin VI by CCK8 assay. Cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. The Polyphyllin VI-induced apoptosis was determined by Annexin V-APC/7-AAD apoptosis detection kit and JC-1 staining. Meanwhile, the autophagy was determined by acridine orange staining. The apoptosis and autophagy-related proteins were monitored by Western blot assay. Subsequently, intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the activation of ROS/JNK pathway were detected. RESULTS: Polyphyllin VI could potently inhibit cell proliferation by causing G2/M phase arrest. Polyphyllin VI induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis with the upregulation of proapoptotic proteins Bax and poly ADP-ribose polymerase, and downregulation of antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 in U2OS cells. Concomitantly, Polyphyllin VI provoked autophagy with the upregulation of critical Atg proteins and accumulation of LC3B-II. Intracellular H2O2 production was triggered upon exposure to Polyphyllin VI, which could be blocked by ROS scavenger. Polyphyllin VI dramatically promoted JNK phosphorylation, whereas it decreased the levels of phospho-p38 and ERK. CONCLUSION: Our results reveal that Polyphyllin VI may effectively induce apoptosis and autophagy to suppress cell growth via ROS/JNK activation in U2OS cells, suggesting that Polyphyllin VI is a potential drug candidate for the treatment of osteosarcomas.

¹H-NMR and MS based metabolomics study of the intervention effect of curcumin on hyperlipidemia mice induced by high-fat diet.

Curcumin, a principle bioactive component of Curcuma longa L, is well known for its anti-hyperlipidemia effect. However, no holistic metabolic information of curcumin on hyperlipidemia models has been revealed, which may provide us an insight into the underlying mechanism. In the present work, NMR and MS based metabolomics was conducted to investigate the intervention effect of curcumin on hyperlipidemia mice induced by high-fat diet (HFD) feeding for 12 weeks. The HFD induced animals were orally administered with curcumin (40, 80 mg/kg) or lovastatin (30 mg/kg, positive control) once a day during the inducing period. Serum biochemistry assay of TC, TG, LDL-c, and HDL-c was conducted and proved that treatment of curcumin or lovastatin can significantly improve the lipid profiles. Subsequently, metabolomics analysis was carried out for urine samples. Orthogonal Partial Least Squares-Discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was employed to investigate the anti-hyperlipidemia effect of curcumin and to detect related potential biomarkers. Totally, 35 biomarkers were identified, including 31 by NMR and nine by MS (five by both). It turned out that curcumin treatment can partially recover the metabolism disorders induced by HFD, with the following metabolic pathways involved: TCA cycle, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, synthesis of ketone bodies and cholesterol, ketogenesis of branched chain amino acid, choline metabolism, and fatty acid metabolism. Besides, NMR and MS based metabolomics proved to be powerful tools in investigating pharmacodynamics effect of natural products and underlying mechanisms.

A universal quantitative ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) method for assessing the purity of dammarane-type ginsenosides.

INTRODUCTION: Quantitative (1)H-NMR (qNMR) is a well-established method for quantitative analysis and purity tests. Applications have been reported in many areas, such as natural products, foods and beverages, metabolites, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. The characteristics of quantitative estimation without relying on special target reference substances make qNMR especially suitable for purity tests of chemical compounds and natural products. Ginsenosides are a special group of natural products drawing broad attention, and are considered to be the main bioactive principles behind the claims of ginsengs efficacy. The purity of ginsenosides is usually determined by conventional chromatographic methods, although these may not be ideal due to the response of detectors to discriminate between analytes and impurities and the long run times involved. OBJECTIVE: To establish a qNMR method for purity tests of six dammarane-type ginsenoside standards. METHODS: Several experimental parameters were optimised for the quantification, including relaxation delay (D1), the transmitter frequency offset (O1P) and power level for pre-saturation (PL9). The method was validated and the purity of the six ginsenoside standards was tested. Also, the results of the qNMR method were further validated by comparison with those of high performance liquid chromatography. CONCLUSION: The qNMR method was rapid, specific and accurate, thus providing a practical and reliable protocol for the purity analysis of ginsenoside standards.

LC-MS determination and pharmacokinetic study of salidroside in rat plasma after oral administration of suspensions of traditional Chinese medicine Erzhi Wan and Fructus Ligustri lucidi.

A simple, rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed for the determination of salidroside in rat plasma and study of its pharmacokinetics after oral administration of suspension of Erzhi Wan and Fructus Ligustri lucidi into Wistar rats. Plasma sample of 200 µL was extracted with acetic ether-isopropanol (2:1) and the extraction was performed on a Kromasil C18 column (150 mm × 4. 6 mm, 5 µm) with the mobile phase of methanol-water (41:59, v/v) within a run time of 6.0 min. The analyte was monitored with positive electrospray ionization (ESI) by selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The target ions were m/z 323.05 for salidroside and m/z 411.05 for internal Standard (IS) geniposide. A good linear relationship was obtained over the range of 5.0-500.0 ng/mL and the lower limit of quantification was 5.0 ng/mL. The validated method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of salidroside in rat plasma after oral administration of suspension of Erzhi Wan and Fructus Ligustri lucidi.

Generation and characterization of 11 novel est derived microsatellites from Vicia faba (Fabaceae).

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed for faba bean using expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the NCBI database to study for genetic diversity. • METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 11 novel EST-SSR loci were generated and characterized when tested on four populations of 29 faba bean individuals from China and Europe. The number of alleles (A) ranged from 1 to 3 in each population, and observed heterozygosity (H(O)) and expected heterozygosity (H(E)) ranged from 0 to 0.5000 and 0.6400, respectively. Furthermore, transferable analysis revealed that eight of these loci (72.73%) amplified in Pisum sativum L., six of which (75.00%) detected polymorphism. • CONCLUSIONS: The developed markers in this study will provide valuable tools for genetic diversity, resource conservation, genetic mapping, and marker-assisted breeding of faba bean in the future.