L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder.

The lack of biomarkers greatly limits the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Endogenous L-carnitine (LC) and its derivative acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) play antidepressant roles by improving brain energy metabolism, regulating neurotransmitters and neural plasticity. The levels of ALC in people and rodents with depression are significantly reduced. It is necessary to determine whether serum LC and ALC might be used as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MDD. Here, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was used to determine the concentration of LC and ALC in the serum of healthy controls and patients with MDD; among the latter, in patients who were responsive (effective group) and non-responsive (ineffective group) after 2 weeks of treatment. The diagnostic value of serum LC and ALC for MDD was assessed. Compared with healthy controls, the serum LC and ALC concentrations in patients with MDD were significantly decreased (P < 0.001). Pearson correlation analysis shows that the HDRS-24 score was negatively associated with serum ALC (r = -0.325, P = 0.007). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.801 with 83.1% sensitivity and 66.3% specificity for LC, and an AUC of 0.898 with 88.8% sensitivity and 76.4% specificity for ALC, differentiating patients with MDD from healthy controls. Furthermore, the concentration of LC and ALC in patients with depression was significantly increased in the effective treatment group, and no significant change was observed in the ineffective treatment group. These results suggest that serum LC and ALC may be novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MDD.

A UPLC-MS/MS method for determination of endogenous l-carnitine and acetyl-l-carnitine in serum of patients with depression.

A simple, rapid, and selective ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of l-carnitine (LC) and acetyl-l-carnitine (ALC) in human serum was developed. Acetyl-l-carnitine-d3 (ALC-d3 ) was selected as internal standard (IS). After protein precipitation with acetonitrile-water (1 mL, 2:1, v/v), the analytes and IS were separated on a 2.5-µm XSelect HSS T3 C18 column by gradient elution with methanol-water (containing 0.01% ammonia water) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Analytes were detected with multiple reaction monitoring using a positive scan mode with electrospray ionization. Good linearity (R2 > 0.999) was observed in the concentration range for LC and ALC. The inter- and intra-day values of relative error were -10.4% to 10.0% with CVs less than 9.84%. The average recoveries of the two analytes were 91.29%-98.23%. Blood samples containing LC and ALC were stable under various storage conditions. Normal, haemolytic, and hyperlipidaemic serum had no significant effect on the quantification of LC and ALC. This method was successfully applied to study the concentrations of endogenous LC and ALC in the serum of patients with first-episode depression.

Metabolic, behavioral, and locomotive effects of feeding in five cyprinids with different habitat preferences.

Fish generally perform routine swimming behaviors during food digestion; thus, changes in swimming performance and adjustments to spontaneous behavior resulting from digestion can have important ecological significance for wild fishes. The effects of feeding on metabolism, spontaneous activity, fast-start escape movement, and critical swimming speed (U crit) were investigated in five cyprinids with different habitat preferences, specifically the Chinese crucian carp (Carassius auratus), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), Chinese bream (Parabramis pekinensis), and qingbo (Spinibarbus sinensis). Generally, species in still water exhibited increased feeding metabolism, whereas species in flowing water showed higher spontaneous activity and locomotion performance. Digestion had no significant effects on either spontaneous activity or fast-start escape movement in the five cyprinids. These results could be due to the small meal sizes (approximately 2% body mass) and active foraging modes of cyprinids. The changes in aerobic swimming performance due to feeding were more complex. No effect of digestion on U crit was observed in crucian carp (still water, high feeding metabolism, and low U crit), common carp (widely distributed, high feeding metabolism, and high U crit), and qingbo (flowing water, low feeding metabolism, and high U crit), but digestion resulted in a significant decrease in the U crit of Chinese bream (moderate feeding metabolism but high U crit) and black carp (moderate feeding metabolism and low U crit), suggesting no connection between postprandial U crit changes and feeding metabolism (or between U crit and preferred habitat). The maximum metabolic rate (MMR) of common carp and crucian carp increased after feeding, whereas the corresponding values for the other three cyprinids remained the same. The oxygen uptake capacity appears to meet the oxygen demand of both aerobic swimming and digestion in common carp and crucian carp, whereas qingbo sacrifices digestion for locomotion, and black carp and Chinese bream sacrifice locomotion for digestion under postprandial swimming conditions. The locomotion-priority mode of qingbo is adaptive to its active foraging mode in the demanding swimming habitat of rapidly flowing water, whereas the high respiratory capacities of postprandial crucian carp and common carp and hence the maintenance of their aerobic swimming performances might be a by-product of natural selection for hypoxia tolerance rather than for swimming speed.

Digesting or swimming? Integration of the postprandial metabolism, behavior and locomotion in a frequently foraging fish.

Fish that are active foragers usually perform routine activities while digesting their food; thus, their postprandial swimming capacity and related behavior adjustments might be ecologically important. To test whether digestion affect swimming performance and the relationships of digestion with metabolism and behavior in an active forager, we investigated the postprandial metabolic response, spontaneous swimming activities, critical swimming speed (Ucrit), and fast-start escape performance of both fasted and digesting (3h after feeding to satiation) juvenile rose bitterling (Rhodeus ocellatus). Feeding to satiation elicited a 50% increase in the oxygen consumption rate, which peaked at 3h after feeding and returned to the prefeeding state after another 3h. However, approximately 50% and 90% of individuals resumed feeding behavior at 2 and 3h postfeeding, respectively, although the meal size varied substantially. Digestion showed no effect on either steady swimming performance as suggested by the Ucrit or unsteady swimming performance indicated by the maximum linear velocity in fast-start escape movement. However, digesting fish showed more spontaneous activity as indicated by the longer total distance traveled, mainly through an increased percentage of time spent moving (PTM). A further analysis found that fasting individuals with high swimming speed were more inclined to increase their PTM during digestive processes. The present study suggests that as an active forager With a small meal size and hence limited postprandial physiological and morphological changes, the swimming performance of rose bitterling is maintained during digestion, which might be crucial for its active foraging mode and anti-predation strategy.

Enzymatic synthesis of novel isobavachalcone glucosides via a UDP-glycosyltransferase.

Glycosylation is often used to improve a natural product's properties such as water solubility, chemical stability, pharmacological potency, and structure diversification. In this study, we studied the enzymatic synthesis of novel isobavachalcone glucosides using a UDP-glycosyltransferase (YjiC) from Bacillus licheniformis DSM-13. The chemical structures of compounds 1 and 2 were elucidated by spectroscopic techniques, including LC-MS, MS, and NMR. Meanwhile, the parameters of glycosylation reaction such as incubation time, UDP-glucose concentration, and pH of buffer were also optimized during this study. Furthermore, the compounds 1 and 2 exhibited weak anti-proliferative activities against five human cancer cell lines, with IC50 values ranging from 58.6 to 86.6 µM.

Behavior, metabolism and swimming physiology in juvenile Spinibarbus sinensis exposed to PFOS under different temperatures.

The harmful effects of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are of growing international concern. This paper aimed to gain an integrated understanding of fitness-related ecological end points, such as behavior, metabolism and swimming physiology, in juvenile Spinibarbus sinensis in response to PFOS toxicity at different temperatures. The fish were exposed to a range of PFOS concentrations (0, 0.32, 0.8, 2 and 5 mg/L) at different temperatures (18 and 28 °C) for 30 days. The effects on fish behavior, metabolic characteristics and aerobic swimming performance caused by PFOS at different temperatures were investigated. Our results showed that both PFOS and temperature had important influences on spontaneous swimming behavior, social interactions, routine metabolic rate (RMR), net energetic cost of transport (COTnet) and critical swimming speed (U crit) in fish. The lowest observed effect concentration for both U crit and RMR was 5 and 0.8 mg/L at 18 and 28 °C, respectively. We found that PFOS affected various behavioral and social end points and also appeared to affect metabolic rates and reduced U crit, likely as a result of increased COTnet, and that many of these effects also changed with respect to temperature. Our results further the understanding of the metabolic and behavioral toxicity of PFOS to aquatic organisms.

Determination of isobavachalcone in rat plasma by LC-MS/MS and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A simple and selective specific high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for determination of isobavachalcone (IBC) in rat plasma was developed. Neobavaisoflavone was used as an internal standard (IS). After protein precipitation with acetonitrile (2:1, v/v), the analyte and IS were separated on a 2.6 µm Kinetex C18 column (100 mm×2.1 mm i.d., Phenomenex) by isocratic elution with acetonitrile:water (60:40, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. An electrospray ionization (ESI) source was applied and operated in the negative ion mode; multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode was used for quantification, and the target fragment ions m/z 323.0→118.9 for IBC and m/z 321.1→265.0 for the IS were chosen. Good linearity was observed in the concentration range of 3.79-484.5 ng/mL for IBC in rat plasma. The recovery of IBC in plasma was in the range of 81.2-89.8%. Intra-day and inter-day precision were both lower than 10%. This method was suitable for pharmacokinetic studies after oral administration of 80 mg/kg IBC in rats. We also obtained pharmacokinetic parameters and concentration-time profiles for IBC after oral administration of IBC in rats.

[Multi-component quantitative analysis combined with chromatographic fingerprint for quality assessment of Onosma hookeri].

A method for simultaneous determination of the shikonin, acetyl shikonin and ß, ß'-dimethylpropene shikonin in Onosma hookeri and the chromatographic fingerprint was estabished by HPLC-DAD on an Agilent Zorbax SB-column with a gradient elution of acetonitrile and water at 0.8 mL x min(-1), 30 degrees C. The quality assessment was conducted by comparing the content difference of three naphthoquinone constituents, in combination with chromatographic fingerprint analysis and systems cluster analysis among 7 batches of radix O. hookeri. The content of the three naphthoquinone constituents showed wide variations in 7 bathces. The similarity value of the fingerprints of sample 5, 6 and 7 was above 0.99, sample 2 and 3 above 0.97, sample 3 and 4 above 0.90, and other samples larger than 0.8, which was in concert with the content of three naphthoquinone constituents. The 7 samples were roughly divided into 4 categories. The results above indicated that the using of this medicine is complex and rather spotty. The established HPLC fingerprints and the quantitative analysis method can be used efficiently for quality assessment of O. hookeri.