An intelligentized strategy for endogenous small molecules characterization and quality evaluation of earthworm from two geographic origins by ultra-high performance HILIC/QTOF MSE and Progenesis QI

Urinary metabolic variation analysis during pregnancy and application in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and spontaneous abortion biomarker discovery

Pregnancy is associated with the onset of many adaptation processes that are likely to change over the course of gestation. Understanding normal metabolites’ variation with pregnancy progression is crucial for gaining insights of the key nutrients for normal fetal growth, and for comparative research of pregnancy-related complications. This work presents liquid chromatography-mass spectrum-based urine metabolomics study of 50 health pregnant women at three time points during pregnancy. The influence of maternal physiological factors, including age, BMI, parity and gravity to urine metabolome was explored. Additionally, urine metabolomics was applied for early prediction of two pregnancy complications, gestational diabetes mellitus and spontaneous abortion. Our results suggested that during normal pregnancy progression, pathways of steroid hormone biosynthesis and tyrosine metabolism were significantly regulated. BMI is a factor that should be considered during cross-section analysis. Application analysis discovered potential biomarkers for GDM in the first trimester with AUC of 0.89, and potential biomarkers for SA in the first trimester with AUC of 0.90. In conclusion, our study indicated that urine metabolome could reflect variations during pregnancy progression, and has potential value for pregnancy complications early prediction. The clinical trial number for this study is NCT03246295.

Metabolic Profiling of Different Parts of Acer truncatum from the Mongolian Plateau Using UPLC-QTOF-MS with Comparative Bioactivity Assays

Acer truncatum is an important ornamental, edible, and medicinal plant resource in China. Previous phytochemical research has focused on the leaf (AL) due to its long history as a tea for health. Other parts such as the branch (ABr), bark (ABa), fruit (AF), and root (AR) have drawn little attention regarding their metabolites and bioactivities. The strategy of an in-house chemical library combined with Progenesis QI informatics platform was applied to characterize the metabolites. A total of 98 compounds were characterized or tentatively identified, including 63 compounds reported from this species for the first time. Principal component analysis showed the close clustering of ABr, ABa, and AR, indicating that they share similar chemical components, while AL and AF clustered more distantly. By multiple orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analyses (OPLS-DA), 52 compounds were identified as potential marker compounds differentiating these different plant parts. The variable influence on projection score from OPLS-DA revealed that catechin, procyanidins B2 or B3, and procyanidins C1 or C2 are the significant metabolites in ABa extracts, which likely contribute to its antioxidant and cytotoxic activities.

Chromatographic Fingerprint and Quantitative Analysis of Commercial Pheretima aspergillum (Guang Dilong) and Its Adulterants by UPLC-DAD

Guang Dilong is a Traditional Chinese Medicine prepared from the dried body of Pheretima aspergillum (E. Perrier), a species of earthworm. However, preparations of Guang Dilong may be adulterated by other species and a method of quality control is needed. A method was developed to analyze and authenticate commercial Guang Dilong, utilizing ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled with diode array detection (DAD). Equipment included an Acquity UPLC HSS T3 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm). The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and 0.01% formic acid, pumped at 0.3 mL/min. Wavelength detection was at 260 nm. Twenty-two batches of confirmed P. aspergillum samples (reference) from different sources and 20 batches of adulterated samples were analyzed to establish a reference fingerprint for commercial Guang Dilong. Five peaks in the fingerprints of the reference batches were identified as characteristic; six characteristic peaks in the fingerprints of the adulterants were identified by comparing their retention time with those of the references. The total 42 batches of samples were compared with the reference fingerprint, and the fingerprints of the P. aspergillum samples were similar. The UHPLC-DAD method can simultaneously determine the contents of six compounds (hypoxanthine, xanthine, uridine, inosine, guanosine, and adenosine) in the reference and adulterated batches. The six compounds showed good regression (r > 0.9999) within test ranges. The recovery (accuracy) was 98.25 to 101.68%, with relative standard deviation <2.67%. In summary, this UHPLC-DAD method combines chromatographic fingerprint with quantification analysis and could be readily used as an efficient quality control method for Guang Dilong.

Systematic Profiling of the Multicomponents and Authentication of Erzhi Pill by UHPLC/Q-Orbitrap-MS Oriented Rapid Polarity-Switching Data-Dependent Acquisition and Selective Monitoring of the Chemical Markers Deduced from Fingerprint Analysis

The analytical platform UHPLC/Q-Orbitrap-MS offers a solution to quality investigation of TCM with high definiteness. Using Erzhi Pill (EZP) as a case, we developed UHPLC/Q-Orbitrap-MS based approaches to achieve systematic multicomponent identification and rapid authentication. Comprehensive multicomponent characterization of EZP was performed by negative/positive switching data-dependent high-energy collision-induced dissociation-MS² (HCD-MS²) after 25 min chromatographic separation. By reference compounds comparison, elemental composition analysis, fragmentation pathways interpretation, and retrieval of an in-house library, 366 compounds were separated and detected from EZP, and 96 thereof were structurally characterized. The fingerprints of two component drugs (Ligustri Lucidi Fructus, LLF; Ecliptae Herba, EH) for EZP were analyzed under the same LC-MS condition by full scan in negative mode. In combination with currently available pharmacological reports, eight compounds were deduced as the ‘identity markers’ of EZP. Selective ion monitoring (SIM) of eight marker compounds was conducted to authenticate six batches of EZP samples. Both LLF and EH could be detected from all EZP samples by analyzing the SIM spectra, which could indicate their authenticity. Conclusively, UHPLC/Q-Orbitrap-MS by rapid polarity switching could greatly expand the potency of untargeted profiling with high efficiency, and SIM of multiple chemical markers rendered a practical approach enabling the authentication of TCM formulae.

Metabolomics of Non-muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer: Biomarkers for Early Detection of Bladder Cancer

Background: Clinical outcomes of bladder cancer (BC) are tightly associated with the stage and grade of the initial diagnosis of BC because early detection is clearly important for patients with BC. However, the diagnostic capability of current detection methods, such as urinary cytology, cystoscopy, imageology method, and several urine-based tests, is inadequate for early detection of BC. The objective of our study is to discover novel biomarkers for detecting BC at an early stage, called non-muscle invasive (NMI) BC, using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS)-based metabolomics.

Methods: First, morning midstream urine samples were collected from healthy adult and NMIBC patients. The LC-HRMS-based metabolomics were applied to distinguish the NMIBC group without hematuria from the controls (gender- and age-matched volunteers with normal clinically healthy index), low-grade NMIBC from the controls, and high-grade from low-grade NMIBC.

Results: A total of 284 subjects were enrolled in our study including 117 healthy adults, 80 NMIBC patients without hematuria, and 87 NMIBC patients with hematuria. The metabolite panel including dopamine 4-sulfate, MG00/1846Z,9Z,12Z,15Z/00, aspartyl-histidine, and tyrosyl-methionine was found in a discovery set, which showed the predictive ability to distinguish the NMIBC group from the control group with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.838 in an external validation set. The AUC of the panel for low-grade NMIBC samples, which consisted of 3-hydroxy-cis-5-tetradecenoylcarnitine, 6-ketoestriol, beta-cortolone, tetrahydrocorticosterone, and heptylmalonic acid, was 0.899. The sensitivity and specificity were 0.881 and 0.786, respectively. The AUC of the panel for distinction of low-grade NMIBC with and without hematuria against high-grade NMIBC with and without hematuria were 0.827 and 0.755, respectively. In addition, metabolites involved in tryptophan metabolism were upregulated in the urine of high-grade NMIBC patients when compared with low-grade NMIBC patients with the presence or absence of hematuria.

Conclusion: The NMIBC urine metabolic profiling was able to assist in the early detection of BC. Panels of metabolites were discovered to have a potential value for high-grade NMIBC and low-grade NMIBC diagnosis as well as for NMIBC grading distinction.

Metabolite profiling of traditional Chinese medicine formula Dan Zhi Tablet: An integrated strategy based on UPLC-QTOF/MS combined with multivariate statistical analysis

Metabolites derived from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are becoming active substances of pharmacologically as well as promising sources for discovering new drugs. However, detection and identification of constituents in vivo remains a challenge for TCM, due to massive endogenous interference and low abundance of metabolites in biological matrix. Traditional Chinese medicine formula Dan Zhi Tablet (DZT), a well-established TCM formula developed based on years of clinical experiences, was widely used to treat cerebral infraction disease. In this study, an integrated strategy based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) was adopted to comprehensively identify the prototype and metabolite constituents of DZT. The potential constituents were screened by cross orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Automatic matching analysis was performed on UNIFI platform based on the function of predicting metabolites. Using this strategy, a total of 170 compounds, including 51 prototype constituents and 119 metabolites were unambiguously or tentatively identified in rat plasma. Furthermore, 31 compounds have also been detected in rat cerebrospinal fluid. The metabolism reactions included phase I reactions (hydroxylation, hydrolysis, deglycosylation, hydrogenation, demethylation and dehydroxylation) and phase II reactions (conjugation with glutatione, cysteine, acetylcysteine, glucuronide, sulfate). It is the first systematic metabolic study of DZT in vivo and some metabolites were also reported for the first time, which could provide a scientific basis for explaining the multiple functions of DZT. More importantly, the integrated strategy also shows promising perspectives in the identification of the metabolites in TCM from a complicated biological matrix.

Untargeted metabolomics profiles delineate metabolic alterations in mouse plasma during lung carcinoma development using UPLC-QTOF/MS in MSE mode

In this work, an untargeted metabolomic method based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) in MSE (E represents collision energy) mode was exploited to determine the dynamic metabolic alterations in the plasma of male C57BL/6 mice during the onset and development of lung carcinoma. Plasma samples were collected from control and model mice (male C57BL/6 mice experimentally inoculated with the Lewis lung carcinoma cells) at 7 and 14 days post-inoculation (DPI). As a result, 15 dysregulated metabolites, including cholesterol sulphate, tiglylcarnitine, 1-palmitoylglycerophosphoinositol, 2-stearoylglycerophosphoinositol, stearoylcarnitine, PC(20:2(11Z,14Z)/16:0), PC(22:4(7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z)/14:0), PC(22:5(7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)/14:0), PC(22:6(4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)/16:0), 12,20-Dioxo-leukotriene B4, sphingosine 1-phosphate(d19:1-P), sphingomyelin(d18:0/16:1(9Z)), lysoPC(16:0), lysoPC(18:0) and lysoPC(20:4(5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z)), were identified in the plasma of model mice with xenografts at both 7 and 14 DPI. All the altered metabolites associated with the onset and development of lung carcinoma were involved in the metabolism of glycerophospholipid, fatty acid, sphingolipid and arachidonic acid. The feasible utility of these endogenous biomarkers as potential diagnostic indicators was validated through receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Collectively, these findings provide a systematic view of metabolic changes linked to the onset and development of lung carcinoma.

Investigation of the urinary metabolic variations and the application in bladder cancer biomarker discovery

Urine metabolomics have been used to identify biomarkers for clinical diseases. However, inter-individual variations and effect factors need to be further evaluated. In our study, we explored the urine metabolome in a cohort of 203 health adults, 6 patients with benign bladder lesions, and 53 patients with bladder cancer (BCa) using liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry. Inter-individual analysis of both healthy controls and BCa patients showed that the urine metabolome was relatively stable. Further analysis indicated that sex and age affect inter-individual variations in urine metabolome. Metabolic pathways such as tryptophan metabolism, the citrate cycle, and pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis were found to be related to sex and age. To eliminate age and sex interference, additional BCa urine metabolomic biomarkers were explored using age and sex-matched urine samples (Test group: 44 health adults vs. 33 patients with BCa). Metabolic profiling of urine could significantly differentiate the cases with cancer from the controls and high-grade from low-grade BCa. A metabolite panel consisting of trans-2-dodecenoylcarnitine, serinyl-valine, feruloyl-2-hydroxyputrescine, and 3-hydroxynonanoyl carnitine were discovered to have good predictive ability for BCa with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.956 (cross validation: AUC = 0.924). A panel of indolylacryloylglycine, N₂ -galacturonyl-L-lysine, and aspartyl-glutamate was used to establish a robust model for high- and low-grade BCa distinction with AUC of 0.937 (cross validation: AUC = 0.891). External sample (26 control vs. 20 BCa) validation verified the acceptable accuracy of these models for BCa detection. Our study showed that urinary metabolomics is a useful strategy for differential analysis and biomarker discovery.

The influence of ripening stage and region on the chemical compounds in mulberry fruits (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) based on UPLC-QTOF-MS

Mulberries (Morus atropurpurea Roxb.) are rich in beneficial nutrients and secondary metabolites. Dramatic climate differences between western and eastern China lead to differences among the fruiting habits of mulberries grown in these regions. In this study, Xinjiang and Jiangsu, two regions in western and eastern China, respectively, were selected as sites where mulberry fruits (MFs) at different ripening stages were sampled. Their individual components, including both targeted and non-targeted chemical compounds, were detected by rapid ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS). Multivariate statistical analyses, including principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to compare MFs during ripening from these two regions. Potential biomarkers, which significantly contributed to the differentiation of the samples, were further identified or tentatively identified to determine the effects of ripening stages and regions on the chemical compounds in MFs. The results show that 43 compounds classified into nine different groups were identified in the MF samples from both the Xinjiang and Jiangsu regions. Among the compounds, all anthocyanins, carbohydrates and dihydroflavonols increased while phenolic acids and hydroxycoumarins decreased during ripening. Caffeoylquinic acids and some of anthocyanins could be regarded as important markers for MF ripening, and the accumulation of organic acids differentiated the samples from the two regions. Together, UPLC-QTOF-MS coupled with multivariate statistical analyses may be effective for metabolite profiling and identification of ripening degrees and cultivation regions.

An enhanced targeted identification strategy for the selective identification of flavonoid O-glycosides from Carthamus tinctorius by integrating offline two-dimensional liquid chromatography/linear ion-trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometry, high-resolution diagnostic product ions/neutral loss filtering and liquid chromatography-solid phase extraction-nuclear magnetic resonance

Targeted identification of potentially bioactive molecules from herbal medicines is often stymied by the insufficient chromatographic separation, ubiquitous matrix interference, and pervasive isomerism. An enhanced targeted identification strategy is presented and validated by the selective identification of flavonoid O-glycosides (FOGs) from Carthamus tinctorius. It consists of four steps: (i) enhanced separation and detection by offline two-dimensional liquid chromatography/LTQ-Orbitrap MS (offline 2D-LC/LTQ-Orbitrap MS) using collision-induced dissociation (CID) and high-energy C-trap dissociation (HCD); (ii) improved identification of the major aglycones by acid hydrolysis and LC-SPE-NMR; (iii) simplified spectral elucidation by high-resolution diagnostic product ions/neutral loss filtering; and (iv) more convincing structural identification by matching an in-house library. An offline 2D-LC system configuring an Acchrom XAmide column and a BEH Shield RP-18 UPLC^® column enabled much better separation of the easily co-eluting components. Combined use of CID and HCD could produce complementary fragmentation information. The intensity ratios of the aglycone ion species ([Y₀-H]^-/Y₀^- and [Y₀-2H]^-/Y₀^-) in the HCD-MS² spectra were found diagnostic for discriminating the aglycone subtypes and characterizing the glycosylation patterns. Five aglycone structures (kaempferol, 6-hydroxykaempferol, 6-methoxykaempferol, carthamidin, and isocarthamidin) were identified based on the ¹H-NMR data recorded by LC-SPE-NMR. Of the 107 characterized flavonoids, 80 FOGs were first reported from C. tinctorius. Unknown aglycones, pentose, and novel acyl substituents were discovered. A new compound thereof was isolated and fully identified, which could partially validate the MS-oriented identification. This integral strategy can improve the potency, efficiency, and accuracy in the detection of new compounds from medicinal herbs and other natural sources.

The profiling of the metabolites of hirsutine in rat by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with linear ion trap Orbitrap mass spectrometry: An improved strategy for the systematic screening and identification of metabolites in multi-samples in vivo

Drug metabolites identification and construction of metabolic profile are meaningful work for the drug discovery and development. The great challenge during this process is the work of the structural clarification of possible metabolites in the complicated biological matrix, which often resulting in a huge amount data sets, especially in multi-samples in vivo. Analyzing these complex data manually is time-consuming and laborious. The object of this study was to develop a practical strategy for screening and identifying of metabolites from multiple biological samples efficiently. Using hirsutine (HTI), an active components of Uncaria rhynchophylla (Gouteng in Chinese) as a model and its plasma, urine, bile, feces and various tissues were analyzed with data processing software (Metwork), data mining tool (Progenesis QI), and HR-MSⁿ data by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/linear ion trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (U-HPLC/LTQ-Orbitrap-MS). A total of 67 metabolites of HTI in rat biological samples were tentatively identified with established library, and to our knowledge most of which were reported for the first time. The possible metabolic pathways were subsequently proposed, hydroxylation, dehydrogenation, oxidation, N-oxidation, hydrolysis, reduction and glucuronide conjugation were mainly involved according to metabolic profile. The result proved application of this improved strategy was efficient, rapid, and reliable for metabolic profiling of components in multiple biological samples and could significantly expand our understanding of metabolic situation of TCM in vivo.

A strategy for establishment of practical identification methods for Chinese patent medicine from systematic multi-component characterization to selective ion monitoring of chemical markers: Shuxiong tablet as a case study

A SMC-SIM strategy for establishment of practical identification methods for Chinese patent medicine.