Noninvasive Serum Metabolomic Profiling Reveals Elevated Kynurenine Pathway’s Metabolites in Humans with Prostate Cancer

Unraveling the complex nexus: Interplay of volatile compounds, free amino acids, and metabolites in oat solid state fermentation

This study delves into the dynamic interplay of volatile compounds, free amino acids, and metabolites, meticulously exploring their transformations during oat fermentation. Analysis via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) unveiled significant alterations: 72 volatile compounds in unfermented oats (NFO) and 60 in fermented oats (FO), reflecting the profound impact of Saccharomyces cerevisiae TU11 and Lactobacillus plantarum Heal19 on oat constituents. A marked increase in Heptane (5.7-fold) and specific alcohol compounds, like 2-methyl-1-propanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and Phenylethyl alcohol in FO samples, while reductions in Hexanal, Hexanoic acid, and Acetic acid were observed. Notably, 4 phenolic compounds emerged post-fermentation, revealing diverse microbial actions in flavor modulation. Orthogonal-partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) indicated a clear separation between NFO and FO, demonstrating distinct volatile compound profiles. Further analysis revealed a noteworthy decrease in all free amino acids except for a significant increase in serine during fermentation. Differential metabolite screening identified 354 metabolites with 219 upregulated and 135 down-regulated, uncovering critical markers like isophenoxazine and imidazole lactic acid. Correlation analyses unveiled intricate relationships between volatile compounds and diverse metabolites, illuminating underlying biochemical mechanisms shaping oat flavor profiles during fermentation.

Prostate cancer-derived extracellular vesicles metabolic biomarkers: Emerging roles for diagnosis and prognosis

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a global health concern, ranking as the most common cancer among men in Western countries. Traditional diagnostic methods are invasive with adverse effects on patients. Due to the heterogeneous nature of PCa and their multifocality, tissue biopsies often yield false-negative results. To address these challenges, researchers are exploring innovative approaches, particularly in the realms of proteomics and metabolomics, to identify more reliable biomarkers and improve PCa diagnosis. Liquid biopsy (LB) has emerged as a promising non-invasive strategy for PCa early detection, biopsy selection, active surveillance for low-risk cases, and post-treatment and progression monitoring. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bilayer nanovesicles released by all cell types and play an important role in intercellular communication. EVs have garnered attention as a valuable biomarker resource in LB for PCa-specific biomarkers, enhancing diagnosis, prognostication, and treatment guidance. Metabolomics provides insight into the body's metabolic response to both internal and external stimuli, offering quantitative measurements of biochemical alterations. It excels at detecting non-genetic influences, aiding in the discovery of more accurate cancer biomarkers for early detection and disease progression monitoring. This review delves into the potential of EVs as a resource for LB in PCa across various clinical applications. It also explores cancer-related metabolic biomarkers, both within and outside EVs in PCa, and summarises previous metabolomic findings in PCa diagnosis and risk assessment. Finally, the article addresses the challenges and future directions in the evolving field of EV-based metabolomic analysis, offering a comprehensive overview of its potential in advancing PCa management.

Phosphoproteomics analysis of serum from dogs affected with pulmonary hypertension secondary to degenerative mitral valve disease

Pulmonary hypertension (PH), a common complication in dogs affected by degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD), is a progressive disorder characterized by increased pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) and pulmonary vascular remodeling. Phosphorylation of proteins, impacting vascular function and cell proliferation, might play a role in the development and progression of PH. Unlike gene or protein studies, phosphoproteomic focuses on active proteins that function as end-target proteins within signaling cascades. Studying phosphorylated proteins can reveal active contributors to PH development. Early diagnosis of PH is crucial for effective management and improved clinical outcomes. This study aimed to identify potential serum biomarkers for diagnosing PH in dogs affected with DMVD using a phosphoproteomic approach. Serum samples were collected from healthy control dogs (n = 28), dogs with DMVD (n = 24), and dogs with DMVD and PH (n = 29). Phosphoproteins were enriched from the serum samples and analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Data analysis was performed to identify uniquely expressed phosphoproteins in each group and differentially expressed phosphoproteins among groups. Phosphoproteomic analysis revealed nine uniquely expressed phosphoproteins in the serum of dogs in the DMVD+PH group and 15 differentially upregulated phosphoproteins in the DMVD+PH group compared to the DMVD group. The phosphoproteins previously implicated in PH and associated with pulmonary arterial remodeling, including small nuclear ribonucleoprotein G (SNRPG), alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2M), zinc finger and BTB domain containing 42 (ZBTB42), hemopexin (HPX), serotransferrin (TRF) and complement C3 (C3), were focused on. Their unique expression and differential upregulation in the serum of DMVD dogs with PH suggest their potential as biomarkers for PH diagnosis. In conclusion, this phosphoproteomic study identified uniquely expressed and differentially upregulated phosphoproteins in the serum of DMVD dogs with PH. Further studies are warranted to validate the diagnostic utility of these phosphoproteins.

Lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and prostate cancer: a crucial metabolic journey

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignancies in males worldwide, and its development and progression involve the regulation of multiple metabolic pathways. Alterations in lipid metabolism affect the proliferation and metastatic capabilities of PCa cells. Cancer cells increase lipid synthesis and regulate fatty acid oxidation to meet their growth and energy demands. Similarly, changes occur in amino acid metabolism in PCa. Cancer cells exhibit an increased demand for specific amino acids, and they regulate amino acid transport and metabolic pathways to fulfill their proliferation and survival requirements. These changes are closely associated with disease progression and treatment response in PCa cells. Therefore, a comprehensive investigation of the metabolic characteristics of PCa is expected to offer novel insights and approaches for the early diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Identification of Novel Biomarkers for Early Diagnosis of Atherosclerosis Using High-Resolution Metabolomics

Atherosclerosis (AS) is a metabolic disorder and the pre-stage of several cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and angina pectoris. Early detection of AS can provide the opportunity for effective management and better clinical results, along with the prevention of further progression of the disease. In the current study, an untargeted and targeted metabolomic approach was used to identify possible metabolic signatures that have altered levels in AS patients. A total of 200 serum samples from individuals with AS and normal were analyzed via liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. Univariate and multivariate analysis approaches were used to identify differential metabolites. A group of metabolites associated with bile acids, amino acids, steroid hormones, and purine metabolism were identified that are capable of distinguishing AS-risk sera from normal. Further, the targeted metabolomics approach confirmed that six metabolites, namely taurocholic acid, cholic acid, cortisol, hypoxanthine, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), and isoleucine, were found to be significantly upregulated, while the concentrations of glycoursodeoxycholic acid, glycocholic acid, testosterone, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and valine were found to be significantly downregulated in the AS-risk sera. The receiver operating characteristic curves of three metabolites, including cortisol, hypoxanthine, and isoleucine, showed high sensitivity and specificity. Taken together, these findings suggest cortisol, hypoxanthine, and isoleucine as novel biomarkers for the early and non-invasive detection of AS. Thus, this study provides new insights for further investigations into the prevention and management of AS.

Current advances of liquid biopsies in prostate cancer: Molecular biomarkers

Prostate cancer (PCa) incidence is increasing and endangers men's lives. Early detection of PCa could improve overall survival (OS) by preventing metastasis. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is a popular screening method. Several advisory groups, however, warn against using the PSA test due to its high false positive rate, unsupported outcome, and limited benefit. The number of disease-related biopsies performed annually far outweighs the number of diagnoses. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop accurate diagnostic biomarkers to detect PCa and distinguish between aggressive and indolent cancers. Recently, non-coding RNA (ncRNA), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)/ctRNA, exosomes, and metabolomic biomarkers in the liquid biopsies (LBs) of patients with PCa showed significant differences and clinical benefits in diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring response to therapy. The analysis of urinary exosomal ncRNA presented a substantial correlation among Exos-miR-375 downregulation, clinical T stage, and bone metastases of PCa. Furthermore, the expression of miR-532-5p in urine samples was a vital predictive biomarker of PCa progression. Thus, this review focuses on promising molecular and metabolomic biomarkers in LBs from patients with PCa. We thoroughly addressed the most recent clinical findings of LB biomarker use in diagnosing and monitoring PCa in early and advanced stages.

Peripheral Blood Serum NMR Metabolomics Is a Powerful Tool to Discriminate Benign and Malignant Ovarian Tumors

Ovarian cancer is the major cause of death from gynecological cancer and the third most common gynecological malignancy worldwide. Despite a slight improvement in the overall survival of ovarian carcinoma patients in recent decades, the cure rate has not improved. This is mainly due to late diagnosis and resistance to therapy. It is therefore urgent to develop effective methods for early detection and prognosis. We hypothesized that, besides being able to distinguish serum samples of patients with ovarian cancer from those of patients with benign ovarian tumors, 1H-NMR metabolomics analysis might be able to predict the malignant potential of tumors. For this, serum 1H-NMR metabolomics analyses were performed, including patients with malignant, benign and borderline ovarian tumors. The serum metabolic profiles were analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis, including principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) methods. A metabolic profile associated with ovarian malignant tumors was defined, in which lactate, 3-hydroxybutyrate and acetone were increased and acetate, histidine, valine and methanol were decreased. Our data support the use of 1H-NMR metabolomics analysis as a screening method for ovarian cancer detection and might be useful for predicting the malignant potential of borderline tumors.

Circulating metabolite biomarkers: a game changer in the human prostate cancer diagnosis

PURPOSE

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in Western and Asian countries. Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test has been the routine diagnostic method despite the tremendous research in diagnostic markers for early detection of PCa. A shift towards a promising and potential biomarker for PCa detection is through metabolomic profiling of biofluids, particularly the blood and urine samples. Finding reliable, routinely usable circulating metabolite biomarkers may not be a distant reality.

METHODS

We performed a PubMed-based literature search of metabolite biomarkers in blood and urine for the early detection of prostate cancer. The timeline of these searches was limited between 2007 and 2022 and the following keywords were used: 'metabolomics', 'liquid biopsy', 'circulating metabolites', 'serum metabolite', 'plasma metabolite', and 'urine metabolite' with respect to 'prostate cancer'. We focussed only on diagnosis-based studies with only the subject-relevant articles published in the English language and excluded all of the other irrelevant publications that included prostate tissue biomarkers and cell line biomarkers.

RESULTS

We have consolidated all the blood and urine-based potential metabolite candidates in individual as well as panels, including lipid classes, fatty acids, amino acids, and volatile organic compounds which may become useful for PCa diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

All these metabolome findings unveil the impact of different dimensions of PCa development, giving a promising strategy to diagnose the disease since suspected individuals can be subjected to repeated and largescale blood and urine testing.

Study on endogenous inhibitors against PD-L1: cAMP as a potential candidate

The discovery of new anti-cancer drugs targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway has been a research hotspot in recent years. In this study, biological affinity ultrafiltration (BAU), UPLC-HRMS, molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and molecular docking methods were applied to search for endogenous active compounds that can inhibit the binding of PD-L1 to PD-1. We screened dozens of potential cancer related endogenous compounds. Surprisingly, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) was found to have a direct inhibitory effect on the PD-1/PD-L1 binding with an in vitro IC₅₀ value of about 36.4 ± 9.3 μM determined by homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence (HTRF) assay. cAMP could recover the proliferation of Jurkat T cells co-cultured with DU-145 cells and may suppress PD-L1 expression of DU-145 cells. cAMP was demonstrated to bind and induce PD-L1 dimerization by FRET assay, and also predicted by MD simulations and molecular docking. The finding of cAMP as a potential inhibitor directly targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction could advance our understanding of the activity of endogenous compounds regulating PD-L1.

Extensive metabolic consequences of human glycosyltransferase gene knockouts in prostate cancer

BACKGROUND

Naturally occurring germline gene deletions (KO) represent a unique setting to interrogate gene functions. Complete deletions and differential expression of the human glycosyltransferase UGT2B17 and UGT2B28 genes are linked to prostate cancer (PCa) risk and progression, leukaemia, autoimmune and other diseases.

METHODS

The systemic metabolic consequences of UGT deficiencies were examined using untargeted and targeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics profiling of carefully matched, treatment-naive PCa cases.

RESULTS

Each UGT KO differentially affected over 5% of the 1545 measured metabolites, with divergent metabolic perturbations influencing the same pathways. Several of the perturbed metabolites are known to promote PCa growth, invasion and metastasis, including steroids, ceramides and kynurenine. In UGT2B17 KO, reduced levels of inactive steroid-glucuronides were compensated by sulfated derivatives that constitute circulating steroid reservoirs. UGT2B28 KO presented remarkably lower levels of oxylipins paralleled by reduced inflammatory mediators, but higher ceramides unveiled as substrates of the enzyme in PCa cells.

CONCLUSION

The distinctive and broad metabolic rewiring caused by UGT KO reinforces the need to examine their unique and divergent functions in PCa biology.

Identification of prediagnostic metabolites associated with prostate cancer risk by untargeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics: A case-control study nested in the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer form in males in many European and American countries, but there are still open questions regarding its etiology. Untargeted metabolomics can produce an unbiased global metabolic profile, with the opportunity for uncovering new plasma metabolites prospectively associated with risk of PCa, providing insights into disease etiology. We conducted a prospective untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics analysis using prediagnostic fasting plasma samples from 752 PCa case-control pairs nested within the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study (NSHDS). The pairs were matched by age, BMI, and sample storage time. Discriminating features were identified by a combination of orthogonal projection to latent structures-effect projections (OPLS-EP) and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Their prospective associations with PCa risk were investigated by conditional logistic regression. Subgroup analyses based on stratification by disease aggressiveness and baseline age were also conducted. Various free fatty acids and phospholipids were positively associated with overall risk of PCa and in various stratification subgroups. Aromatic amino acids were positively associated with overall risk of PCa. Uric acid was positively, and glucose negatively, associated with risk of PCa in the older subgroup. This is the largest untargeted LC-MS based metabolomics study to date on plasma metabolites prospectively associated with risk of developing PCa. Different subgroups of disease aggressiveness and baseline age showed different associations with metabolites. The findings suggest that shifts in plasma concentrations of metabolites in lipid, aromatic amino acid, and glucose metabolism are associated with risk of developing PCa during the following two decades.

Identification of characteristic metabolic panels for different stages of prostate cancer by 1H NMR-based metabolomics analysis

Background

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most prevalent cancer in males worldwide, yet detecting PCa and its metastases remains a major challenging task in clinical research setups. The present study aimed to characterize the metabolic changes underlying the PCa progression and investigate the efficacy of related metabolic panels for an accurate PCa assessment.

Methods

In the present study, 75 PCa subjects, 62 PCa patients with bone metastasis (PCaB), and 50 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients were enrolled, and we performed a cross-sectional metabolomics analysis of serum samples collected from these subjects using a ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics approach.

Results

Multivariate analysis revealed that BPH, PCa, and PCaB groups showed distinct metabolic divisions, while univariate statistics integrated with variable importance in the projection (VIP) scores identified a differential metabolite series, which included energy, amino acid, and ketone body metabolism. Herein, we identified a series of characteristic serum metabolic changes, including decreased trends of 3-HB and acetone as well as elevated trends of alanine in PCa patients compared with BPH subjects, while increased levels of 3-HB and acetone as well as decreased levels of alanine in PCaB patients compared with PCa. Additionally, our results also revealed the metabolic panels of discriminant metabolites coupled with the clinical parameters (age and body mass index) for discrimination between PCa and BPH, PCaB and BPH, PCaB and PCa achieved the AUC values of 0.828, 0.917, and 0.872, respectively.

Conclusions

Overall, our study gave successful discrimination of BPH, PCa and PCaB, and we characterized the potential metabolic alterations involved in the PCa progression and its metastases, including 3-HB, acetone and alanine. The defined biomarker panels could be employed to aid in the diagnosis and classification of PCa in clinical practice.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-022-03478-5.

HSP90 Mediates IFNγ-Induced Adaptive Resistance to Anti-PD-1 Immunotherapy

SIGNIFICANCE

This study reveals an HSP90-centric, iron-modulated mechanism that confers immunosuppression, offering potential therapeutic targets for interfering with acquired resistance to the most prevalent anticancer immunotherapies.

Circulating acetylated polyamines correlate with Covid-19 severity in cancer patients

Cancer patients are particularly susceptible to the development of severe Covid-19, prompting us to investigate the serum metabolome of 204 cancer patients enrolled in the ONCOVID trial. We previously described that the immunosuppressive tryptophan/kynurenine metabolite anthranilic acid correlates with poor prognosis in non-cancer patients. In cancer patients, we observed an elevation of anthranilic acid at baseline (without Covid-19 diagnosis) and no further increase with mild or severe Covid-19. We found that, in cancer patients, Covid-19 severity was associated with the depletion of two bacterial metabolites, indole-3-proprionate and 3-phenylproprionate, that both positively correlated with the levels of several inflammatory cytokines. Most importantly, we observed that the levels of acetylated polyamines (in particular N1-acetylspermidine, N1,N8-diacetylspermidine and N1,N12-diacetylspermine), alone or in aggregate, were elevated in severe Covid-19 cancer patients requiring hospitalization as compared to uninfected cancer patients or cancer patients with mild Covid-19. N1-acetylspermidine and N1,N8-diacetylspermidine were also increased in patients exhibiting prolonged viral shedding (>40 days). An abundant literature indicates that such acetylated polyamines increase in the serum from patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease or neurodegeneration, associated with poor prognosis. Our present work supports the contention that acetylated polyamines are associated with severe Covid-19, both in the general population and in patients with malignant disease. Severe Covid-19 is characterized by a specific metabolomic signature suggestive of the overactivation of spermine/spermidine N1-acetyl transferase-1 (SAT1), which catalyzes the first step of polyamine catabolism.

Aromatic amino acids play a harmonizing role in prostate cancer: A metabolomics-based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common health problem worldwide. The rate of this disease is likely to grow by 2021. PCa is a heterogeneous disorder, and various biochemical factors contribute to the development of this disease. The metabolome is the complete set of metabolites in a cell or biological sample and represents the downstream end product of the omics. Hence, to model PCa by computational systems biology, a preliminary metabolomics-based study was used to compare the metabolome profile pattern between healthy and PCa men.

OBJECTIVE

This study was carried out to highlight energy metabolism modification and assist the prognosis and treatment of disease with unique biomarkers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this cross-sectional research, 26 men diagnosed with stage-III PCa and 26 healthy men with normal PSA levels were enrolled. Urine was analyzed with proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H-NMR) spectroscopy, accompanied by the MetaboAnalyst web-based platform tool for metabolomics data analysis. Partial least squares regression discriminant analysis was applied to clarify the separation between the two groups. Outliers were documented and metabolites determined, followed by identifying biochemical pathways.

RESULTS

Our findings reveal that modifications in aromatic amino acid metabolism and some of their metabolites have a high potential for use as urinary PCa biomarkers. Tryptophan metabolism (p < 0.001), tyrosine metabolism (p < 0.001), phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis (p < 0.001), phenylalanine metabolism (p = 0.01), ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis (p = 0.19), nitrogen metabolism (p = 0.21), and thiamine metabolism (p = 0.41) with Q2 (0.198) and R2 (0.583) were significantly altered.

CONCLUSION

The discriminated metabolites and their pathways play an essential role in PCa causes and harmony.

Oxidative Storm Induced by Tryptophan Metabolites: Missing Link between Atherosclerosis and Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) occurrence is rising all over the world. Its presence is associated with an increased risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several explanations of this link have been put forward. It is known that in renal failure, an array of metabolites cannot be excreted, and they accumulate in the organism. Among them, some are metabolites of tryptophan (TRP), such as indoxyl sulfate and kynurenine. Scientists have become interested in them in the context of inducing vascular damage in the course of chronic kidney impairment. Experimental evidence suggests the involvement of TRP metabolites in the progression of chronic kidney disease and atherosclerosis separately and point to oxidative stress generation as one of the main mechanisms that is responsible for worsening those states. Since it is known that blood levels of those metabolites increase significantly in renal failure and that they generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), which lead to endothelial injury, it is reasonable to suspect that products of TRP metabolism are the missing link in frequently occurring atherosclerosis in CKD patients. This review focuses on reports that shed a light on TRP metabolites as contributing factors to vascular damage in the progression of impaired kidney function.

Effect of a Single Bout of Aerobic Exercise on Kynurenine Pathway Metabolites and Inflammatory Markers in Prostate Cancer Patients-A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

The kynurenine (KYN) pathway gains growing research interest concerning the genesis, progression and therapy of solid tumors. Previous studies showed exercise-induced effects on metabolite levels along the KYN pathway. Modulations of the KYN pathway might be involved in the positive impact of exercise on prostate cancer progression and mortality. The objective of this trial was to investigate whether a single-physical exercise alters tryptophan (TRP) metabolism and related inflammatory markers in this population. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 24 patients suffering from prostate cancer. While the control group remained inactive, the intervention group performed a 30-min aerobic exercise on a bicycle ergometer at 75% of individual VO_2peak. Before (t0) and directly after the exercise intervention (t1) KYN, TRP, kynurenic acid, quinolinic acid as well as various inflammation markers (IL6, TNF-α, TGF-β) were measured in blood serum. At baseline, the present sample showed robust correlations between TRP, KYN, quinolinic acid and inflammatory markers. Regarding the exercise intervention, interaction effects for TRP, the KYN/TRP ratio and TGF-β were observed. The results show for the first time that acute physical exercise impacts TRP metabolism in prostate cancer patients. Moreover, baseline associations underline the relationship between inflammation and the KYN pathway in prostate cancer.

High-resolution metabolomics study revealing l-homocysteine sulfinic acid, cysteic acid, and carnitine as novel biomarkers for high acute myocardial infarction risk

BACKGROUND

Identifying changes in serum metabolites before the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is an important approach for finding novel biomarkers of AMI.

METHODS

In this prospective cohort study, serum samples obtained from patients at risk of AMI (n = 112) and non-risk controls (n = 89) were tested using high-resolution metabolomics (HRM). Partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), along with univariate analysis using a false discovery rate (FDR) of q = 0.05 were performed to discriminate metabolic profiles and to determine significantly different metabolites between healthy control and AMI risk groups.

RESULTS

PLS-DA significantly separated the AMI risk sera from control sera. The metabolites associated with amino acid biosynthesis, 2-oxocarboxylic acid, tryptophan, and amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism pathways were mainly elevated in patients at risk of AMI. Further validation and quantification by MS/MS showed that tryptophan, carnitine, L-homocysteine sulfinic acid (L-HCSA), and cysteic acid (CA) were upregulated, while L-cysteine and L-cysteine sulfinic acid (L-CSA) were downregulated, specifically among AMI risk sera. Additionally, these discriminant metabolic profiles were not related to hypertension, smoking or alcoholism.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, detecting upregulated L-HCSA and CA along with carnitine among patients at risk for AMI could serve as promising non-invasive biomarkers for early AMI detection.

Mass spectrometry based proteomics and metabolomics in personalized oncology

Precision medicine (PM) means the customization of healthcare with decisions and practices adjusted to the individual patient. It includes personalized diagnostics, patients' sub-classification, individual treatment selection and the monitoring of its effectiveness. Currently, in oncology, PM is based on the molecular and cellular features of a tumor, its microenvironment and the patient's genetics and lifestyle. Surprisingly, the available targeted therapies were found effective only in a subset of patients. An in-depth understanding of tumor biology is crucial to improve their effectiveness and develop new therapeutic targets. Completion of genetic information with proteomics and metabolomics can give broader knowledge about tumor biology which consequently provides novel biomarkers and indicates new therapeutic targets. Recently, metabolomics and proteomics have extensively been applied in the field of oncology. In the context of PM, human studies, with the use of mass spectrometry (MS) which allows the detection of thousands of molecules in a large number of samples, are the most valuable. Such studies, focused on cancer biomarkers discovery or patients' stratification, are presented in this review. Moreover, the technical aspects of MS-based clinical proteomics and metabolomics are described.

Global metabolomics analysis of serum from humans at risk of thrombotic stroke

We aimed to determine the serum concentrations of altered compounds to understand the changes in metabolism and pathophysiology that occur prior to thrombotic stroke.

Kynurenine Pathway Metabolites as Biomarkers for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) currently lacks a robust and well-defined biomarker that can 1) assess the progression of the disease, 2) predict and/or delineate the various clinical subtypes, and 3) evaluate or predict a patient's response to treatments. The kynurenine Pathway (KP) of tryptophan degradation represent a promising candidate as it is involved with several neuropathological features present in ALS including neuroinflammation, excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, immune system activation and dysregulation of energy metabolism. Some of the KP metabolites (KPMs) can cross the blood brain barrier, and many studies have shown their levels are dysregulated in major neurodegenerative diseases including ALS. The KPMs can be easily analyzed in body fluids and tissue and as they are small molecules, and are stable. KPMs have a Janus face action, they can be either or both neurotoxic and/or neuroprotective depending of their levels. This mini review examines and presents evidence supporting the use of KPMs as a relevant set of biomarkers for ALS, and highlights the criteria required to achieve a valid biomarker set for ALS.

Metabolomics Contributions to the Discovery of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers and a leading cause of death among men worldwide. Despite extensive efforts in biomarker discovery during the last years, currently used clinical biomarkers are still lacking enough specificity and sensitivity for PCa early detection, patient prognosis, and monitoring. Therefore, more precise biomarkers are required to improve the clinical management of PCa patients. In this context, metabolomics has shown to be a promising and powerful tool to identify novel PCa biomarkers in biofluids. Thus, changes in polyamines, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, amino acids, and fatty acids metabolism have been reported in different studies analyzing PCa patients' biofluids. The review provides an up-to-date summary of the main metabolic alterations that have been described in biofluid-based studies of PCa patients, as well as a discussion regarding their potential to improve clinical PCa diagnosis and prognosis. Furthermore, a summary of the most significant findings reported in these studies and the connections and interactions between the different metabolic changes described has also been included, aiming to better describe the specific metabolic signature associated to PCa.