Metabolomic and elemental profiling of blood serum in bladder cancer / 药物分析学报

Bladder cancer(BC)is one of the most frequently diagnosed types of urinary cancer.Despite advances in treatment methods,no specific biomarkers are currently in use.Targeted and untargeted profiling of metabolites and elements of human blood serum from 100 BC patients and the same number of normal controls(NCs),with external validation,was attempted using three analytical methods,i.e.,nuclear magnetic resonance,gold and silver-109 nanoparticle-based laser desorption/ionization mass spec-trometry(LDI-MS),and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry(ICP-OES).All results were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis.Four potential serum biomarkers of BC,namely,iso-butyrate,pyroglutamate,choline,and acetate,were quantified with proton nuclear magnetic resonance,which had excellent predictive ability as judged by the area under the curve(AUC)value of 0.999.Two elements,Li and Fe,were also found to distinguish between cancer and control samples,as judged from ICP-OES data and AUC of 0.807(in validation set).Twenty-five putatively identified compounds,mostly related to glycans and lipids,differentiated BC from NCs,as detected using LDI-MS.Five serum metab-olites were found to discriminate between tumor grades and nine metabolites between tumor stages.The results from three different analytical platforms demonstrate that the identified distinct serum metabolites and metal elements have potential to be used for noninvasive detection,staging,and grading of BC.

Overview of metalomics research and its application prospect in mineral Chinese medicine research / 中国中药杂志

Metallomics is a frontier interdisciplinary subject at its vigorous development stage. Its goal is to systematically study the content, distribution, chemical species, structural characteristics and functions of metal elements in biological system. It is also a comprehensive discipline to study the existing state and function of free or complex metal elements in life. Metallomics is an ideal tool to study the biological behavior of inorganic elements, which can be used to solve many problems in the research of mineral Chinese medicine(MCM). It provides a strong theoretical basis and technical support for the research of MCM. Its theory and methods provide re-ference and enlightenment for the in-depth study of MCM, and also provide new ideas and open up new ways for the research of MCM. The application of metallomics theory and methods in the research of MCM is of great significance to reveal the material basis and mec-hanism of MCM, promote the process of basic research on MCM, fully exploit and utilize medicinal mineral resources and carry forward the traditional MCM treasure in China. In this paper, we introduced the concept, academic development, research content and research methods of metallomics, and discussed the application prospects of metallomics in the analysis of inorganic element composition characteristics and quality control, material basis and mechanism of MCM, so as to provide reference for further researches on MCM.

The Current Research of Metal Elements in Traditional Chinese Medicine / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

Metal or semi-metal elements have numerous physiological and biochemical properties and have correlations with the process of occurrence and development of Zheng and Chinese herbal medicine pharmacodynamics mechanism. This article will expound the current situation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) research based on metal elements from the researches of Zheng, medicine theory, pharmacodynamic mechanism, prescription principles, medicine concocted theory and medicine quality control in TCM. In addition to putting forward the shortages of current researches, we also introduce metallomics, the member of Omics in systems biology to offer a new idea for modernization of TCM based on metal elements.

Ebola viral selenoproteins: A metallomics analysis

Ebola virus infection is the present public health problem. The trend of worldwide epidemic becomes the serious consideration for this infection. The Ebola virus infection has main clinical manifestation as acute febrile illness with hemorrhagic episode. The problem of hemostatic disturbance can be seen. Focusing on the pathophysiology, selenium plays an important role in the blood clotting regulation. The study on the selenoprotein of the Ebola virus can be useful for further understanding on the pathology of the infection. Here, the authors use metallomics analysis for assessment of Ebola virus genome. According to this study, the selenoprotein portion within Ebola virus genome can be detected at position 1046-1115.