Searching for the mechanisms of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) pathophysiology has become a crucial aspect of research performed in the last decades. However, the pathogenesis of this complex ...and heterogeneous endocrinopathy remains unknown. Thus, there is a need to investigate the metabolic pathways, which could be involved in the pathophysiology of PCOS and to find the metabolic markers of this disorder. The application of metabolomics gives a promising insight into the research on PCOS. It is a valuable and rapidly expanding tool, enabling the discovery of novel metabolites, which may be the potential biomarkers of several metabolic and endocrine disorders. The utilization of this approach could also improve the process of diagnosis and therefore, make treatment more effective. This review article aims to summarize actual and meaningful metabolomic studies in PCOS and point to the potential biomarkers detected in serum, urine, and follicular fluid of the affected women.
Plasma untargeted metabolomics is a common method for evaluation of the mechanisms underlying human pathologies and identification of novel biomarkers. The plasma proteins provide the environment for ...transport of hydrophobic metabolites. The current sample preparation protocol relies on the immediate precipitation of proteins and thus leads to co-precipitation of a significant fraction of hydrophobic metabolites. Here we present a new simple procedure that overcomes the co-precipitation problem and improves metabolome coverage. Introducing an additional step preceding the protein precipitation, namely limited digestion with proteinase K, allows release of associated metabolites through the relaxation of the native proteins tertiary structure. The modified protocol allows clear detection of hydrophobic metabolites including fatty acids and phospholipids. Considering the potential involvement of the hydrophobic metabolites in human cardiovascular and cancer diseases, the method may constitute a novel approach in plasma untargeted metabolomics.
Bladder cancer constitutes the ninth most common cancer worldwide and, despite continuous development of new diagnostic approaches, the thirteenth leading cause of global cancer mortality. In our ...previous untargeted urine metabolomic investigation, seventeen metabolites were found to be statistically differentiating bladder cancer patients and healthy volunteers. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to develop and validate an analytical method for simultaneous quantitative determination of those metabolites using reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry technique (RP-HPLC-QQQ/MS). Different chromatographic conditions, as well as various sample treatment procedures were tested in order to provide the best separation and the lowest limit of quantification (LOQ) values for studied compounds. The validation was performed according to the Food and Drug Administration guidelines (FDA). The limit of determination (LOD) and the LOQ values were in the range of 0.21–10.51 ng/ml and 0.69–35.02 ng/ml, respectively. The concentration range of compounds was developed between 2.5 and 12500 ng/ml. Only one compound (trimethyllysine) showed a significant matrix effect (61%) and consequently low process efficiency (64%). Overall, developed method presented recovery and precision values within the ranges proposed by FDA guidelines. The optimized and validated method was applied to urine samples obtained from 40 patients with bladder cancer and 40 healthy volunteers matched according to ones of the most important risk factors for developing urinary bladder tumors, e.i. age, gender and BMI. Afterwards, statistical analysis was provided by the use of Student's t-test or U-Mann Whitney test. The developed method was sensitive, selective and reproducible to be applied for the quantification of metabolites in the investigation of urine samples. As a consequence, ten out of previously chosen seventeen compounds, participating in different metabolites' pathways (gut floral metabolism, RNA degradation, purine metabolism, etc.), were found to be statistically significantly different in the urine concentration (p < 0.05) between cancer and control groups.
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► A fast LC–MS/MS method for simultaneous analysis of 12 nucleosides was developed. ► 129 urine samples were analyzed after extraction with PBA Varian columns. ► The method was validated in terms of ...all general validation parameters. ► The advanced statistical analysis was applied to evaluate role of nucleosides as cancer biomarkers.
The aim of this work was a comprehensive analysis of metabolite profiles of nucleosides from biological samples obtained from patients with urogenital cancer disease as well as an interpretation of cancer-related patterns of the analyzed profiles. In our study we proposed a targeted approach that was focused on the simultaneous determination of twelve nucleosides from over a hundred urine samples. For analytes’ quantification high performance liquid chromatography technique hyphenated with tripple quadrupole mass spectrometer was applied. The developed method was validated in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy as well as in terms of limit of quantification and limit of detection. The obtained, normalized data set was analyzed using univariate statistical analysis. The achieved results revealed statistically significant (p<0.05) differences between levels of five nucleosides determined in urine samples from cancer patients and healthy volunteers, namely: 6-methyladenosine, inosine, N-2-methylguanosine, 3-methyluridine and N,N-dimethylguanosine. Basing on the putative markers we built the discrimination models using partial least squares discriminant analysis as well as K-nearest neighbor method. The sensitivity and specificity of the markers calculated from the obtained models were in the range of 61.9–88.89% and 27.78–50%, respectively. The proposed procedure can be considered as a holistic approach for metabolites’ analysis and includes clinical, analytical and bioinformatics sections.
Recently, the diagnostic methods used by scientists in forensic examinations have enormously expanded. Metabolomics provides an important contribution to analytical method development. The main ...purpose of this review was to investigate and summarize the most recent applications of metabolomics in forensic science. The primary research method was an extensive review of available international literature in PubMed. The keywords "forensic" and "metabolomics" were used as search criteria for the PubMed database scan. Most authors emphasized the analysis of different biological sample types using chromatography methods. The presented review is a summary of recently published implementations of metabolomics in forensic science and types of biological material used and techniques applied. Possible opportunities for valuable metabolomics' applications are discussed to emphasize the essential necessities resulting in numerous nontargeted metabolomics' assays.
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•Serum untargeted metabolomics with the use of two complementary techniques, GC-MS and LC-MS in PCOS was performed.•Women with PCOS are characterised by disorders in amino acid, ...carbohydrate, steroid hormone, lipid and purine metabolism.•Increased levels of phospholipids, aromatic amino acids, organic acids, hormones and sphinganine were observed.•Decreased level of cholesterol was determined in case of PCOS disease.•Cholesterol, phenylalanine and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, uric and lactic acids have the best discriminative power.
In addition to chronic anovulation and clinical signs of hyperandrogenism women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are insulin resistant and therefore, develop central obesity with its long term consequences such as dyslipidaemia, hypertension, atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which all lead to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Due to the polysymptomatic nature of this syndrome and lack of consensus on its diagnostic criteria there is a strong need of finding a reliable biochemical or molecular marker, which would facilitate making the accurate diagnosis of PCOS. Therefore, the aim of our study was to perform a metabolomics analysis with the use of two complementary techniques: gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, of the serum samples from women with PCOS (n = 30) and to compare them with healthy age and BMI matched controls (n = 30). Obtained results were subjected to one-dimensional statistical analysis (student’s t-test or its non-parametric equivalent U Mann-Whitney test) and multivariate statistical analysis (the principal component analysis PCA, variable importance into projection VIP and selectivity ratio SR). The results of our study showed that women with PCOS are characterised by metabolic disorders of the amino acids, carbohydrates, steroid hormones, lipids and purines. Compared to control subjects, women with PCOS had increased serum levels of phospholipids, aromatic amino acids, organic acids, hormones and sphinganine and decreased total cholesterol. Among the identified compounds, total cholesterol, phenylalanine and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, uric and lactic acid were the compounds with the strongest discriminating power.
•Nucleosides and modified nucleosides are potential markers in various types of cancer.•Nucleosides concentrations in urine were found elevated in cancer patients.•Challenges and drawbacks of ...different types of ion sources and analyzers are shown.•LC–MS is suitable and versatile tool for analysis and identification of nucleosides.
Nucleosides, the RNA metabolites, are well known as potential markers in various types of cancer. They are mainly detected in urine wherein their concentrations were found elevated in cancer patients. In order to determine the nucleosides’ profile in urine with satisfactory sensitivity and accuracy, advanced analytical techniques should be applied involving mass spectrometry detection. In this work we overviewed actual possibilities in targeted and untargeted metabolomics studies of nucleosides and their analogues (cis-diol metabolites) using high performance liquid chromatography hyphenated with mass spectrometry detection. We focused on challenges and drawbacks using different types of ion sources and analyzers. The nucleosides’ fragmentation patterns were also compared for the sake of their identification in biological samples. As applied analytical techniques allow for the metabolites’ determination, statistical approach essential for evaluation of nucleosides as cancer markers was also reviewed.
•Development and validation of fast and robust TF-SMPE LC-MS/MS method and application for the separation and quantification of the most discriminating urine androgens in women with ...PCOS.•Quantitative analysis of urinary androgens in PCOS women and evaluation of their significance as specific steroid biomarkers of this complex disorder.•Determination of the panel of three urinary androgens: T+DHT+An-dione shows high predictive value for the diagnosis of PCOS (AUC of ROC curve = 0.91) than looking only for a single biomarker.
Hyperandrogenism is one of the most pronounced symptoms of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and seems to play a key role in the pathogenesis of this complex disorder. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of consistent results regarding common steroid predictors of PCOS. Therefore, a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-QqQ/MS) method was developed and validated to determine the concentrations of four classic androgens: androstenedione (An-dione), testosterone (T), 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and androsterone (An) in urine samples obtained from women with PCOS and healthy controls. The limits of detection were between 0.04 and 0.09 ng/mL, while the limits of quantification ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 ng/mL respectively. As a pre-treatment procedure prior to analysis, hydrolysis using β-glucuronidase and thin film solid-phase microextraction (TF-SPME) was applied. The methodology was employed to perform targeted metabolomics of urinary steroids in women with PCOS and healthy controls. All measured androgens: An-dione (p < 0.0001), T (p = 0.0001), DHT (p < 0.0001) and An (p = 0.0002) showed significantly higher concentrations in the urine of women with PCOS. The largest difference in the mean concentration was found for DHT, which was 2.8 times higher in the PCOS group (13.9 ± 14.1 ng/mg creatinine) in comparison to healthy controls (4.9 ± 3.4 ng/mg creatinine). The results of receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that determination of the panel of three urinary androgens: T+DHT+An-dione with, under the study assumptions, was the best predictor of PCOS diagnosis (AUC of ROC curve = 0.91 (95 % CI: 0.8212–0.9905). The application of an LC-MS/MS-based analysis, together with highly sensitive extraction techniques like TF-SPME, is a suitable approach to perform fast assays and obtain reliable results - crucial in the search for valuable and significant steroids predictors of PCOS.
In transcriptomics, micro RNAs (miRNAs) has gained much interest especially as potential disease indicators. However, apart from holding a great promise related to their clinical application, a lot ...of inconsistent results have been published. Our aim was to compare the miRNA expression levels in ovarian cancer and healthy subjects using the Bayesian multilevel model and to assess their potential usefulness in diagnosis. We have analyzed a case-control observational data on expression profiling of 49 preselected miRNA-based ovarian cancer indicators in 119 controls and 59 patients. A Bayesian multilevel model was used to characterize the effect of disease on miRNA levels controlling for differences in age and body weight. The difference between the miRNA level and health status of the patient on the scale of the data variability were discussed in the context of their potential usefulness in diagnosis. Additionally, the cross-validated area under the ROC curve (AUC) was used to assess the expected out-of-sample discrimination index of a different sets of miRNAs. The proposed model allowed us to describe the set of miRNA levels in patients and controls. Three highly correlated miRNAs: miR-101-3p, miR-142-5p, miR-148a-3p rank the highest with almost identical effect sizes that ranges from 0.45 to 1.0. For those miRNAs the credible interval for AUC ranged from 0.63 to 0.67 indicating their limited discrimination potential. A little benefit in adding information from other miRNAs was observed. There were several miRNAs in the dataset (miR-604, hsa-miR-221-5p) for which inferences were uncertain. For those miRNAs more experimental effort is needed to fully assess their effect in the context of new hits discovery and usefulness as disease indicators. The proposed multilevel Bayesian model can be used to characterize the panel of miRNA profile and to assess the difference in expression levels between healthy and cancer individuals.
A comparative study was conducted to assess the injection precision in capillary electrophoresis for cationic analytes (arecoline, codeine, papaverine). The precision was measured in respect to ...methods sensitivity in various injection modes in capillary electrophoresis: standard hydrodynamic injection (3.45 kPa for 6 s), large volume sample stacking (3.45 kPa for 40 s), and field‐amplified sample injection (10 kV for 65 s). All measurements were conducted for aqueous solutions of standards to minimize the errors linked to the sample preparation step. The methods were submitted to precision assessment at three concentration levels: at the limit of quantification, three‐fold and ten‐fold of limit of quantification. The results were compared to those from high‐performance liquid chromatography as a reference technique. The field‐amplified sample injection method was shown to provide greatest sensitivity (quantification limits down to 4 ng/mL for all three tested compounds) but the lowest precision. High‐performance liquid chromatography was established as the most reliable technique (coefficient of variation in all intraday experiments was below 1%). It was also shown that with a use of large volume sample injection technique, similar sensitivity as in high‐performance liquid chromatography can be easily reached.
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