Glucose metabolism is remodeled in cancer, but the global pattern of cancer-specific metabolic changes remains unclear. Here we show, using the comprehensive measurement of metabolic enzymes by ...large-scale targeted proteomics, that the metabolism both carbon and nitrogen is altered during the malignant progression of cancer. The fate of glutamine nitrogen is shifted from the anaplerotic pathway into the TCA cycle to nucleotide biosynthesis, with this shift being controlled by glutaminase (GLS1) and phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate amidotransferase (PPAT). Interventions to reduce the PPAT/GLS1 ratio suppresses tumor growth of many types of cancer. A meta-analysis reveals that PPAT shows the strongest correlation with malignancy among all metabolic enzymes, in particular in neuroendocrine cancer including small cell lung cancer (SCLC). PPAT depletion suppresses the growth of SCLC lines. A shift in glutamine fate may thus be required for malignant progression of cancer, with modulation of nitrogen metabolism being a potential approach to SCLC treatment.
One of the technical challenges in the field of metabolomics is the development of a single-run method to detect the full complement of polar metabolites in biological samples. However, an ideal ...method to meet this demand has not yet been developed. Herein, we proposed a simple methodology that enables the comprehensive and simultaneous analysis of polar metabolites using unified-hydrophilic-interaction/anion-exchange liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (unified-HILIC/AEX/MS) with a polymer-based mixed amines column composed of methacrylate-based polymer particles with primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary amines as functional groups. The optimized unified-HILIC/AEX/MS method is composed of two consecutive chromatographic separations, HILIC-dominant separation for cationic, uncharged, and zwitterionic polar metabolites retention times (RTs) = 0–12.8 min and AEX-dominant separation for polar anionic metabolites (RTs = 12.8–26.5 min), by varying the ratio of acetonitrile to 40 mM ammonium bicarbonate solution (pH 9.8). A total of 400 polar metabolites were analyzed simultaneously through a combination of highly efficient separation using unified-HILIC/AEX and remarkably sensitive detection using multiple reaction monitoring-based triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (unified-HILIC/AEX/MS/MS). A nontargeted metabolomic approach using unified-HILIC/AEX high-resolution mass spectrometry (unified-HILIC/AEX/HRMS) also provided more comprehensive information on polar metabolites (3242 metabolic features) in HeLa cell extracts than the conventional HILIC/HRMS method (2068 metabolic features). Our established unified-HILIC/AEX/MS/MS and unified-HILIC/AEX/HRMS methods have several advantages over conventional techniques, including polar metabolome coverage, throughput, and accurate quantitative performance, and represent potentially useful tools for in-depth studies on metabolism and biomarker discovery.
Lipidomics, the mass spectrometry-based comprehensive analysis of lipids, has attracted attention as an analytical approach to provide novel insight into lipid metabolism and to search for ...biomarkers. However, an ideal method for both comprehensive and quantitative analysis of lipids has not been fully developed. Here, we have proposed a practical methodology for widely targeted quantitative lipidome analysis using supercritical fluid chromatography fast-scanning triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (SFC/QqQMS) and theoretically calculated a comprehensive lipid multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) library. Lipid classes can be separated by SFC with a normal-phase diethylamine-bonded silica column with high resolution, high throughput, and good repeatability. Structural isomers of phospholipids can be monitored by mass spectrometric separation with fatty acyl-based MRM transitions. SFC/QqQMS analysis with an internal standard-dilution method offers quantitative information for both lipid class and individual lipid molecular species in the same lipid class. Additionally, data acquired using this method has advantages, including reduction of misidentification and acceleration of data analysis. Using the SFC/QqQMS system, alteration of plasma lipid levels in myocardial infarction-prone rabbits to the supplementation of EPA was first observed. Our developed SFC/QqQMS method represents a potentially useful tool for in-depth studies focused on complex lipid metabolism and biomarker discovery.—Takeda, H., Y. Izumi, M. Takahashi, T. Paxton, S. Tamura, T. Koike, Y. Yu, N. Kato, K. Nagase, M. Shiomi, and T. Bamba.
We investigate vertices for plane curves with singular points. As plane curves with singular points, we consider Legendre curves (respectively, Legendre immersions) in the unit tangent bundle over ...the Euclidean plane and frontals (respectively, fronts) in the Euclidean plane. We define a vertex using evolutes of frontals. After that we define a vertex of a frontal in the general case. It is also known that the four vertex theorem does not hold for simple closed fronts. We give conditions under which a frontal has a vertex and the four vertex theorem holds for closed frontals. We also give examples and counter examples of the four vertex theorem.
Although oxidized phosphatidylcholines (oxPCs) play critical roles in numerous pathological events, the type and production sites of endogenous oxPCs remain unknown because of the lack of structural ...information and dedicated analytical methods. Herein, a library of 465 oxPCs is constructed using high-resolution mass spectrometry-based non-targeted analytical methods and employed to detect 70 oxPCs in mice with acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure. We show that doubly oxygenated polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-PCs (PC PUFA;O2), containing epoxy and hydroxide groups, are generated in the early phase of liver injury. Hybridization with in-vivo
O labeling and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-tandem MS imaging reveals that PC PUFA;O2 are accumulated in cytochrome P450 2E1-expressing and glutathione-depleted hepatocytes, which are the major sites of liver injury. The developed library and visualization methodology should facilitate the characterization of specific lipid peroxidation events and enhance our understanding of their physiological and pathological significance in lipid peroxidation-related diseases.
Several studies in hepatocyte cell lines reported that medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) with 6–12 carbons showed different metabolic properties from long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs). However, these ...studies reported unclear effects of different fatty acid molecules on hepatocyte metabolism. This study is aimed to capture the metabolic kinetics of MCFA assimilation in AML12 cells treated with octanoic acid (FA 8:0), decanoic acid (FA 10:0), or lauric acid (FA12:0) LCFA; oleic acid (FA 18:1) via metabolic profiling and dynamic metabolome analysis with 13C-labeling. The concentrations of total ketone bodies in the media of cells treated with FA 8:0 or FA 10:0 were 3.22- or 3.69-fold higher than those obtained with FA 18:1 treatment, respectively. FA 12:0 treatment did not significantly increase ketone body levels compared to DMSO treatment (control), whereas FA 12:0 treatment increased intracellular triacylglycerol (TG) levels 15.4 times compared to the control. Metabolic profiles of FA 12:0-treated samples differed from those of the FA 8:0-treated and FA 10:0-treated samples, suggesting that metabolic assimilation of MCFAs differed significantly depending on the MCFA type. Furthermore, the dynamic metabolome analysis clearly revealed that FA 8:0 was rapidly and quantitatively oxidized to acetyl-CoA and assimilated into ketone bodies, citrate cycle intermediates, and glucogenic amino acids but not readily into TGs.
A first-order differential equation of Clairaut type has a family of classical solutions, and a singular solution when the contact singular set is not empty. The projection of a singular solution of ...Clairaut type is an envelope of a family of fronts (Legendre immersions). In these cases, the envelopes are always fronts. We investigate singular points of envelopes for first-order ordinary differential equations, first-order partial differential equations, and systems of first-order partial differential equations of Clairaut type, respectively.
In order to investigate envelopes for singular surfaces, we introduce one- and two-parameter families of framed surfaces and the basic invariants, respectively. By using the basic invariants, the ...existence and uniqueness theorems of one- and two-parameter families of framed surfaces are given. Then we define envelopes of one- and two-parameter families of framed surfaces and give the existence conditions of envelopes which are called envelope theorems. As an application of the envelope theorems, we show that the projections of singular solutions of completely integrable first-order partial differential equations are envelopes.
Iridium complexes are one of the most important materials for fabrication of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). There are difficulties in the preparation of blue phosphorescent complexes with ...respect to chromaticity, emission efficiency, and stability of the material, compared with green and red phosphorescent complexes. Control of the frontier orbital energy level (HOMO–LUMO) is the sole method to achieve better blue phosphorescent iridium complexes by appropriate ligand selection and the introduction of adequate substituents. Homoleptic and heteroleptic iridium(III) tris(phenylimidazolinate) complexes were synthesized, and the effect of the substituents on their nature in the excited state was examined. Density functional theory calculation showed that the imidazolinato complexes have the HOMO localized at the iridium d- and phenyl π-orbitals. The LUMO is also localized on the phenyl moiety with a much higher population than HOMO. This LUMO is quite different from other complexes, such as iridium(III) tris(phenylpyridinate) and tris(phenylpyrazolinate) complexes. Therefore, substitution with π-electron donating groups and electron withdrawing groups induces blue and red spectral shifts, respectively, which is the reverse shift exhibited by other complexes. The ancillary ligand (acetylacetone) acts as a path for nonradiative deactivation in the blue phosphorescent complexes.
Periodontal infection induces systemic inflammation; therefore, aggravating diabetes. Orally administered periodontal pathogens may directly alter the gut microbiota. We orally treated obese db/db ...diabetes mice using Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg). We screened for Pg-specific peptides in the intestinal fecal specimens and examined whether Pg localization influenced the intestinal microbiota profile, in turn altering the levels of the gut metabolites. We evaluated whether the deterioration in fasting hyperglycemia was related to the changes in the intrahepatic glucose metabolism, using proteome and metabolome analyses. Oral Pg treatment aggravated both fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia (P < 0.05), with a significant (P < 0.01) increase in dental alveolar bone resorption. Pg-specific peptides were identified in fecal specimens following oral Pg treatment. The intestinal Pg profoundly altered the gut microbiome profiles at the phylum, family, and genus levels; Prevotella exhibited the largest increase in abundance. In addition, Pg-treatment significantly altered intestinal metabolite levels. Fasting hyperglycemia was associated with the increase in the levels of gluconeogenesis-related enzymes and metabolites without changes in the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and insulin resistance. Oral Pg administration induced gut microbiota changes, leading to entero-hepatic metabolic derangements, thus aggravating hyperglycemia in an obese type 2 diabetes mouse model.
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