Isotope labeling pattern study of central carbon metabolites using GC/MS

Isomer selectivity of one- and two-dimensional approaches of mixed-mode and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry for sugar phosphates of glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways

In this study, the chromatographic behavior of mixed-mode and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) with the mixed-mode HILIC/strong anion-exchange (SAX) column HILICpak VT-50 2D and the two HILIC columns Atlantis Premier BEH Z-HILIC and Acquity Premier BEH Amide was assessed with regard to their separation capability of the metabolites from the glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways. Chromatographic conditions were evaluated with the aim of achieving separation of the isomeric glycolytic phosphorylated carbohydrate metabolites free from isomeric interferences and thus allowing for selective targeted analysis by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) using multiple reaction monitoring acquisition. The effects of pH values (8.0/9.0/10.0) of the ammonium bicarbonate buffer and gradient time were investigated during HILIC-MS/MS analysis, with the optimal conditions found at pH = 10.0. Separation of the pentose phosphate isomers (ribose 5- and 1-phosphate, xylulose 5-phosphate and ribulose 5-phosphate) was achieved on the mixed-mode HILIC/SAX (HILICpak VT-50 2D) column and HILIC BEH Amide column. Column performance was evaluated based on the direct comparison of chromatographic parameters, i.e. peak width at 50% and peak tailing factors of the individual metabolites. Parity plots were generated allowing a direct comparison between the normalized retention times and assessment of orthogonality of all 3 stationary phases evaluated. Separation of 7 biologically relevant hexose monophosphates metabolites turned out to be challenging by HILIC-MS/MS, with the BEH Amide providing the best individual results for such a separation. However, fructose 6-phosphate and glucose 1-phosphate co-eluted. Therefore, an on-line heart-cutting HILIC-Mixed Mode 2D-LC-QToF experiment was conducted, allowing the separation of this critical isomer pair. In this setup, the BEH Amide column in the ¹D separated the majority of target metabolites, while a heart-cut of the peak from totally coeluted fructose 6-phosphate and glucose 1-phosphate was separated in the ²D with HILICpak VT50-2D column, thus allowing undisturbed determination of the glycolytic phosphorylated carbohydrate metabolites due to their chromatographic separation from hexose monophosphate metabolites. The assay specificity towards 7 common hexose monophosphates was characterized (glucose 1- and 6-phosphate, galactose 1- and 6-phosphate, fructose 6-phosphate, mannose 1- and 6-phosphate). The selectivity of some rare hexose monophosphates (allose 6-phosphate, tagatose 6-phosphate, sorbose 1-phosphate) was also tested.

13C metabolic flux analysis: Classification and characterization from the perspective of mathematical modeling and application in physiological research of neural cell

¹³C metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) has emerged as a forceful tool for quantifying in vivo metabolic pathway activity of different biological systems. This technology plays an important role in understanding intracellular metabolism and revealing patho-physiology mechanism. Recently, it has evolved into a method family with great diversity in experiments, analytics, and mathematics. In this review, we classify and characterize the various branch of ¹³C-MFA from a unified perspective of mathematical modeling. By linking different parts in the model to each step of its workflow, the specific technologies of ¹³C-MFA are put into discussion, including the isotope labeling model (ILM), isotope pattern measuring technique, optimization algorithm and statistical method. Its application in physiological research in neural cell has also been reviewed.

Solution Chemistry of Dihydroxyacetone and Synthesis of Monomeric Dihydroxyacetone

Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is a major byproduct of e-cigarette combustion and is the active ingredient in sunless tanning products. Mounting evidence points to its damaging effects on cellular functions. While developing a simple synthetic route to monomeric [13C3]DHA for flux metabolic studies that compared DHA and glyceraldehyde (GA) metabolism, we uncovered that solid DHA ages upon storage and differences in the relative abundance of each of its isomer occur when reconstituted in an aqueous solution. While all three of the dimeric forms of DHA ultimately resolve to the ketone and hydrated forms of monomeric DHA once in water at room temperature, these species require hours rather than minutes to reach an equilibrium favoring the monomeric species. Consequently, when used in bolus or flux experiments, the relative abundance of each isomer and its effects at the time of application is dependent on the initial DHA isomeric composition and concentration, and time of equilibration in solution before use. Here, we make recommendations for the more consistent handling of DHA as we report conditions that ensure that DHA is present in its monomeric form while in solutions, conditions used in an isotopic tracing study that specifically compared monomeric DHA and GA metabolism in cells.

Ultrasensitive Determination of Sugar Phosphates in Trace Samples by Stable Isotope Chemical Labeling Combined with RPLC-MS

Sugar phosphates are important metabolic intermediates in organisms and play a vital role in energy and central carbon metabolism. Profiling of sugar phosphates is of great significance but full of challenges due to their high structural similarity and low sensitivities in liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS). In this study, we developed a novel stable isotope chemical labeling combined with the reversed-phase (RP)LC-MS method for ultrasensitive determination of sugar phosphates at the single-cell level. By chemical derivatization with 2-(diazo-methyl)-N-methyl-N-phenyl-benzamide (2-DMBA) and d₅-2-DMBA, sugar phosphate isomers can obtain better separation and identification, and the detection sensitivities of sugar phosphates increased by 3.5-147 folds. The obtained limits of detection of sugar phosphates ranged from 5 to 16 pg/mL. Using this method, we achieved ultrasensitive and accurate quantification of 12 sugar phosphates in different trace biological samples. Benefiting from the improved separation and detection sensitivity, we successfully quantified five sugar phosphates (d-glucose 1-phosphate, d-mannose 6-phosphate, d-fructose 6-phosphate, d-glucose 6-phosphate, and seduheptulose 7-phosphate) in a single protoplast of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Putative regulatory role of hexokinase and fructokinase in terpenoid aroma biosynthesis in Lilium 'Siberia'

Lily is one of the most economically important flowers worldwide due to its elegant appearance and appealing scent, which is mainly composed of monoterpene ocimene, linalool and benzenoids. Sugars are the primary products of plants, with fructose and hexose sugars being the substrate material for most organic compounds and metabolic pathways in plants. Herein, we isolated and functionally characterized hexokinase (LoHXK) and fructokinase (LoFRK) from Lilium 'Siberia' flower, which indicated their potential roles in floral aroma production. Real-time PCR analysis showed that LoHXK and LoFRK were highly expressed in the flower filament. Overexpression and virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) assays revealed that LoHXK and LoFRK significantly modified the emission of β-ocimene and linalool contents via regulation of expression of key structural volatile synthesis genes (LoTPS1 and LoTPS3). Under exogenous glucose and fructose application, the volatile contents of β-ocimene and linalool were increased and the expression levels of key structural genes were upregulated. The emission of β-ocimene and linalool followed a diurnal circadian rhythm. Determination of carbon fluxes via ¹³C-labeled glucose and ¹³C-labeled fructose experiments showed that the mass spectra of ocimene and linalool significantly increased, however, the m/z ratio of ethyl benzoate did not change. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays showed that LoFRK interacted with LoMYB1 and LoMYB2 proteins. Together, these results suggest that hexokinase and fructokinase may play significant roles in the regulation of ocimene and linalool biosynthesis in Lilium 'Siberia'.

Loss of Rb1 Enhances Glycolytic Metabolism in Kras-Driven Lung Tumors In Vivo

Dysregulated metabolism is a hallmark of cancer cells and is driven in part by specific genetic alterations in various oncogenes or tumor suppressors. The retinoblastoma protein (pRb) is a tumor suppressor that canonically regulates cell cycle progression; however, recent studies have highlighted a functional role for pRb in controlling cellular metabolism. Here, we report that loss of the gene encoding pRb (Rb1) in a transgenic mutant Kras-driven model of lung cancer results in metabolic reprogramming. Our tracer studies using bolus dosing of [U-¹³C]-glucose revealed an increase in glucose carbon incorporation into select glycolytic intermediates. Consistent with this result, Rb1-depleted tumors exhibited increased expression of key glycolytic enzymes. Interestingly, loss of Rb1 did not alter mitochondrial pyruvate oxidation compared to lung tumors with intact Rb1. Additional tracer studies using [U-¹³C,¹⁵N]-glutamine and [U-¹³C]-lactate demonstrated that loss of Rb1 did not alter glutaminolysis or utilization of circulating lactate within the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) in vivo. Taken together, these data suggest that the loss of Rb1 promotes a glycolytic phenotype, while not altering pyruvate oxidative metabolism or glutamine anaplerosis in Kras-driven lung tumors.

Nuclear Glycogenolysis Modulates Histone Acetylation in Human Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers

Nuclear glycogen was first documented in the early 1940s, but its role in cellular physiology remained elusive. In this study, we utilized pure nuclei preparations and stable isotope tracers to define the origin and metabolic fate of nuclear glycogen. Herein, we describe a key function for nuclear glycogen in epigenetic regulation through compartmentalized pyruvate production and histone acetylation. This pathway is altered in human non-small cell lung cancers, as surgical specimens accumulate glycogen in the nucleus. We demonstrate that the decreased abundance of malin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, impaired nuclear glycogenolysis by preventing the nuclear translocation of glycogen phosphorylase and causing nuclear glycogen accumulation. Re-introduction of malin in lung cancer cells restored nuclear glycogenolysis, increased histone acetylation, and decreased growth of cancer cells transplanted into mice. This study uncovers a previously unknown role for glycogen metabolism in the nucleus and elucidates another mechanism by which cellular metabolites control epigenetic regulation.

Targeting Pathogenic Lafora Bodies in Lafora Disease Using an Antibody-Enzyme Fusion

Lafora disease (LD) is a fatal childhood epilepsy caused by recessive mutations in either the EPM2A or EPM2B gene. A hallmark of LD is the intracellular accumulation of insoluble polysaccharide deposits known as Lafora bodies (LBs) in the brain and other tissues. In LD mouse models, genetic reduction of glycogen synthesis eliminates LB formation and rescues the neurological phenotype. Therefore, LBs have become a therapeutic target for ameliorating LD. Herein, we demonstrate that human pancreatic α-amylase degrades LBs. We fused this amylase to a cell-penetrating antibody fragment, and this antibody-enzyme fusion (VAL-0417) degrades LBs in vitro and dramatically reduces LB loads in vivo in Epm2a-/- mice. Using metabolomics and multivariate analysis, we demonstrate that VAL-0417 treatment of Epm2a-/- mice reverses the metabolic phenotype to a wild-type profile. VAL-0417 is a promising drug for the treatment of LD and a putative precision therapy platform for intractable epilepsy.

Sugar phosphate analysis with baseline separation and soft ionization by gas chromatography-negative chemical ionization-mass spectrometry improves flux estimation of bidirectional reactions in cancer cells

Precise measurement of sugar phosphates in glycolysis and the pentose phosphate (PP) pathway for ¹³C-metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) is needed to understand cancer-specific metabolism. Although various analytical methods have been proposed, analysis of sugar phosphates is challenging because of the structural similarity of various isomers and low intracellular abundance. In this study, gas chromatography-negative chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (GC-NCI-MS) is applied to sugar phosphate analysis with o-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl) oxime (PFBO) and trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatization. Optimization of the GC temperature gradient achieved baseline separation of sugar phosphates in 31 min. Mass spectra showed the predominant generation of fragment ions containing all carbon atoms in the sugar phosphate backbone. The limit of detection of pentose 5-phosphates and hexose 6-phosphates was 10 nM. The method was applied to ¹³C-labeling measurement of sugar phosphates for ¹³C-MFA of the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. ¹³C-labeling of sugar phosphates for ¹³C-MFA improved the estimation of the net flux and reversible flux of bidirectional reactions in glycolysis and the PP pathway.

Implementation of data-dependent isotopologue fragmentation in 13C-based metabolic flux analysis

A novel analytical approach based on liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry, employing data-dependent triggering for analysis of isotopologue and tandem mass isotopomer fractions of metabolites of the primary carbon metabolism was developed. The implemented QTOFMS method employs automated MS/MS triggering of higher abundant, biologically relevant isotopologues for generating positional information of the respective metabolite. Using this advanced isotopologue selective fragmentation approach enables the generation of significant tandem mass isotopomer data within a short cycle time without compromising sensitivity. Due to a lack of suitable reference material certified for isotopologue ratios, a Pichia pastoris cell extract with a defined 13C distribution as well as a cell extract from a 13C-based metabolic flux experiment were employed for proof of concept. Moreover, a method inter-comparison with an already established GC-CI-(Q)TOFMS approach was conducted. Both methods showed good agreement on isotopologue and tandem mass isotopomer distributions for the two different cell extracts. Graphical abstract Schematic overview of data-dependent isotopologue fragmentation for acquisition of isotopologue and tandem mass isotopomer fractions.

Accurate and sensitive determination of molar fractions of 13C-Labeled intracellular metabolites in cell cultures grown in the presence of isotopically-labeled glucose

This work describes a methodology based on multiple linear regression and GC-MS for the determination of molar fractions of isotopically-labeled intracellular metabolites in cell cultures. Novel aspects of this work are: i) the calculation of theoretical isotopic distributions of the different isotopologues from an experimentally measured value of % 13C enrichment of the labeled precursor ii) the calculation of the contribution of lack of mass resolution of the mass spectrometer and different fragmentation mechanism such as the loss or gain of hydrogen atoms in the EI source to measure the purity of the selected cluster for each metabolite and iii) the validation of the methodology not only by the analysis of gravimetrically prepared mixtures of isotopologues but also by the comparison of the obtained molar fractions with experimental values obtained by GC-Combustion-IRMS based on ¹³C/¹²C isotope ratio measurements. The method is able to measure molar fractions for twenty-eight intracellular metabolites derived from glucose metabolism in cell cultures grown in the presence of ¹³C-labeled Glucose. The validation strategies demonstrate a satisfactory accuracy and precision of the proposed procedure. Also, our results show that the minimum value of ¹³C incorporation that can be accurately quantified is significantly influenced by the calculation of the spectral purity of the measured cluster and the number of ¹³C atoms of the labeled precursor. The proposed procedure was able to accurately quantify gravimetrically prepared mixtures of natural and labeled glucose molar fractions of 0.07% and mixtures of natural and labeled glycine at molar fractions down to 0.7%. The method was applied to initial studies of glucose metabolism of different prostate cancer cell lines.

Fast exchange fluxes around the pyruvate node: a leaky cell model to explain the gain and loss of unlabelled and labelled metabolites in a tracer experiment

BACKGROUND

Glucose and glutamine are the two dominant metabolic substrates in cancer cells. In (13)C tracer experiments, however, it is necessary to account for all significant input substrates, as some natural (unlabelled) substrate in the medium, often derived from serum, can be metabolised by cells despite not showing signs of net consumption.

RESULTS

Using [U-(13)C6]-glucose tracers and measuring extracellular metabolite enrichments by GC-MS, we found that pancreatic cells HPDE and PANC-1 secrete lactate, pyruvate, TCA cycle metabolites and non-essential amino acids synthesised from glucose. Focusing our investigations on pyruvate exchange in HEK293 cells, we observed that the four metabolites pools, intracellular and extracellular lactate and pyruvate, had similar (13)C enrichment trajectories. This indicated that these metabolites can mix rapidly. Using a hybrid (13)C-MFA, we followed to show that the lactate exchange flux had increased when extracellular lactate concentration was increased by 10-fold. By allowing rapid exchange fluxes around the pyruvate node, (13)C-MFA revealed that PANC-1 cells cultured in [U-(13)C6]-glucose doubled the conversion of unlabelled substrates to pyruvate when treated with TNF-α.

CONCLUSIONS

The current work established the possibility that a cell's range of significant input substrates may be broader than anticipated. Metabolite exchange can affect intracellular enrichments. In particular, we showed that pyruvate was more strongly connected to lactate than to upstream glycolytic intermediates and that a fast lactate exchange may alter the outcome of flux analyses. Nevertheless, the leaky cell model may be an opportunity in disguise-the ability to continuously monitor metabolism using only the enrichments of extracellular metabolites.

Metabolic Cooperation of Glucose and Glutamine Is Essential for the Lytic Cycle of Obligate Intracellular Parasite Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread protozoan parasite infecting nearly all warm-blooded organisms. Asexual reproduction of the parasite within its host cells is achieved by consecutive lytic cycles, which necessitates biogenesis of significant energy and biomass. Here we show that glucose and glutamine are the two major physiologically important nutrients used for the synthesis of macromolecules (ATP, nucleic acid, proteins, and lipids) in T. gondii, and either of them is sufficient to ensure the parasite survival. The parasite can counteract genetic ablation of its glucose transporter by increasing the flux of glutamine-derived carbon through the tricarboxylic acid cycle and by concurrently activating gluconeogenesis, which guarantee a continued biogenesis of ATP and biomass for host-cell invasion and parasite replication, respectively. In accord, a pharmacological inhibition of glutaminolysis or oxidative phosphorylation arrests the lytic cycle of the glycolysis-deficient mutant, which is primarily a consequence of impaired invasion due to depletion of ATP. Unexpectedly, however, intracellular parasites continue to proliferate, albeit slower, notwithstanding a simultaneous deprivation of glucose and glutamine. A growth defect in the glycolysis-impaired mutant is caused by a compromised synthesis of lipids, which cannot be counterbalanced by glutamine but can be restored by acetate. Consistently, supplementation of parasite cultures with exogenous acetate can amend the lytic cycle of the glucose transport mutant. Such plasticity in the parasite's carbon flux enables a growth-and-survival trade-off in assorted nutrient milieus, which may underlie the promiscuous survival of T. gondii tachyzoites in diverse host cells. Our results also indicate a convergence of parasite metabolism with cancer cells.

Metabolic characterization of cultured mammalian cells by mass balance analysis, tracer labeling experiments and computer-aided simulations

Studying metabolic directions and flow rates in cultured mammalian cells can provide key information for understanding metabolic function in the fields of cancer research, drug discovery, stem cell biology, and antibody production. In this work, metabolic engineering methodologies including medium component analysis, (13)C-labeling experiments, and computer-aided simulation analysis were applied to characterize the metabolic phenotype of soft tissue sarcoma cells derived from p53-null mice. Cells were cultured in medium containing [1-(13)C] glutamine to assess the level of reductive glutamine metabolism via the reverse reaction of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH). The specific uptake and production rates of glucose, organic acids, and the 20 amino acids were determined by time-course analysis of cultured media. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the (13)C-labeling of citrate, succinate, fumarate, malate, and aspartate confirmed an isotopically steady state of the cultured cells. After removing the effect of naturally occurring isotopes, the direction of the IDH reaction was determined by computer-aided analysis. The results validated that metabolic engineering methodologies are applicable to soft tissue sarcoma cells derived from p53-null mice, and also demonstrated that reductive glutamine metabolism is active in p53-null soft tissue sarcoma cells under normoxia.