Functional metabolomics: from biomarker discovery to metabolome reprogramming

Metabolomics is emerging as a powerful tool for studying metabolic processes, identifying crucial biomarkers responsible for metabolic characteristics and revealing metabolic mechanisms, which construct the content of discovery metabolomics. The crucial biomarkers can be used to reprogram a metabolome, leading to an aimed metabolic strategy to cope with alteration of internal and external environments, naming reprogramming metabolomics here. The striking feature on the similarity of the basic metabolic pathways and components among vastly different species makes the reprogramming metabolomics possible when the engineered metabolites play biological roles in cellular activity as a substrate of enzymes and a regulator to other molecules including proteins. The reprogramming metabolomics approach can be used to clarify metabolic mechanisms of responding to changed internal and external environmental factors and to establish a framework to develop targeted tools for dealing with the changes such as controlling and/or preventing infection with pathogens and enhancing host immunity against pathogens. This review introduces the current state and trends of discovery metabolomics and reprogramming metabolomics and highlights the importance of reprogramming metabolomics.

Significance of a novel fetal RNA-binding protein p62 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the histological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma with p62 expression, and the correlation of p62 protein with biological characteristics of the cancer cells such as proliferation and metastasis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The immunohistochemical expression of p62 and Ki-67 were studied in 40 primary hepatocellular carcinomas.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>67.5% (27/40) exhibited positive staining of p62 protein in the cytoplasm of malignant cells, of which the strong positivity was mainly found in pathologic grade III cases. The cases with strong positive staining of p62 exhibited extensive fibrosis in the stroma and massive necrosis of the tumor. These cases also exhibited high proliferation activity, the mean Ki-67 labeling index was 28.3% +/- 15.1%, which was significantly higher than that in p62 negative ones (t = 3.087, P = 0.005). Three of five cases with lung or celiac lymph node metastasis exhibited strong positive staining of p62.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There is some relationship between the expression of p62 protein, proliferation activity and metastasis of cancer cells as well as with the microenvironment which have abundant fibrous tissue in the stroma.</p>