Metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics profiling of myoblasts infected with Trypanosoma cruzi after treatment with different drugs against Chagas disease.

INTRODUCTION: Chagas disease, the most important parasitic infection in Latin America, is caused by the intracellular protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. To treat this disease, only two nitroheterocyclic compounds with toxic side effects exist and frequent treatment failures are reported. Hence there is an urgent need to develop new drugs. Recently, metabolomics has become an efficient and cost-effective strategy for dissecting drug mode of action, which has been applied to bacteria as well as parasites, such as different Trypanosome species and forms. OBJECTIVES: We assessed if the metabolomics approach can be applied to study drug action of the intracellular amastigote form of T. cruzi in a parasite-host cell system. METHODS: We applied a metabolic fingerprinting approach (DI-MS and NMR) to evaluate metabolic changes induced by six different (candidate) drugs in a parasite-host cell system. In a second part of our study, we analyzed the impact of two drugs on polar metabolites, lipid and proteins to evaluate if affected pathways can be identified. RESULTS: Metabolic signatures, obtained by the fingerprinting approach, resulted in three different clusters. Two can be explained by already known of mode actions, whereas the three experimental drugs formed a separate cluster. Significant changes induced by drug action were observed in all the three metabolic fractions (polar metabolites, lipids and proteins). We identified a general impact on the TCA cycle, but no specific pathways could be attributed to drug action, which might be caused by a high percentage of common metabolome between a eukaryotic host cell and a eukaryotic parasite. Additionally, ion suppression effects due to differences in abundance between host cells and parasites may have occurred. CONCLUSION: We validated the metabolic fingerprinting approach to a complex host-cell parasite system. This technique can potentially be applied in the early stage of drug discovery and could help to prioritize early leads or reconfirmed hits for further development.

Evidence that brain glucose availability influences exercise-enhanced extracellular 5-HT level in hippocampus: a microdialysis study in exercising rats.

The relationship between brain glucose and serotonin is still unclear and no direct evidence of an action of brain glucose on serotonergic metabolism in central fatigue phenomena has been shown yet. In order to determine whether or not brain glucose could influence the brain 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) system, we have monitored in microdialysis the effects of a direct injection of glucose in rat brain hippocampus on serotonergic metabolism [i.e. 5-HT, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and tryptophan (TRP)], during high intensive treadmill running. The injection was performed just before and after exercise. We have shown that glucose induced a decrease of brain 5-HT levels to a minimum of 73.0 +/- 3.5% of baseline after the first injection (P < 0.01) and to 68.5 +/- 5.5% of baseline after the second injection (P < 0.01) and consequently prevented the exercise-induced 5-HT enhanced levels. We have observed the same phenomenon concerning the 5-HIAA, but brain TRP levels were not decreased by the injections. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that brain glucose can act on serotonergic metabolism and thus can prevent exercise-induced increase of 5-HT levels. The results also suggest that extracellular brain glucose does not act on the synthesis way of 5-HT, but probably on the release/reuptake system.

Exercise-induced changes in brain glucose and serotonin revealed by microdialysis in rat hippocampus: effect of glucose supplementation.

The aim of this study was to assess extracellular glucose changes in hippocampus in response to physical exercise and to determine the influence of glucose supplementation. In the same time, we have observed the changes in serotonin, in order to study the relationship between glucose and serotonin during exercise. Both glucose and serotonin were assessed using microdialysis. Exercise induced an increase in extracellular glucose levels over baseline during exercise to 121.1 +/- 3.0% (P < 0.001), then a decrease to baseline during recovery. The serotonin followed glucose changes during the first 90 min of exercise, but followed a different pattern during recovery, increasing to a maximum of 129.9 +/- 7.0% after 30 min of recovery (P < 0.001). When a 15% glucose solution was infused (10 microL x min(-1)) during exercise and recovery, blood glucose concentration was increased, but extracellular brain glucose decreased to reach a minimum of 73.3 +/- 4.6% after 90 min of recovery (P < 0.001). Serotonin was always the mirror-reflect of cerebral glucose, with a maximum increase of 142.0 +/- 6.9% after 90 min of recovery (P < 0.001). These results show that exercise induces changes in brain glucose and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) levels, which were dramatically modified by glucose infusion. Taking into account the implication of brain 5-HT in central fatigue, they suggest that if glucose supplementation, before and during exercise, undoubtedly increase performance because of its peripheral positive action, it would have a negative impact on the quality of recovery after the end of the exercise.

Evidence that the branched-chain amino acid L-valine prevents exercise-induced release of 5-HT in rat hippocampus.

The branched-chain amino acid L-valine competes with tryptophan for transport into the brain and has previously been shown to decrease brain 5-HT synthesis. The purpose of this study was to assess, using a combined venous catheterization and in vivo microdialysis method, the effect of pre-exercise L-valine administration on 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) metabolism in the ventral hippocampus of rats submitted to an acute intensive treadmill running (120 min at 25 m x min(-1) followed by 150 min of recovery). The presented results include measurement of extracellular tryptophan (TRP), the 5-HT precursor, and extracellular 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the 5-HT metabolite. The data clearly demonstrate that exercise induces 5-HT release in the rat hippocampus: in control group, hippocampal 5-HT levels increase from 123.7 +/- 6.4% at the end of exercise to 133.9 +/- 6.4% after 60 min of recovery. Moreover, two hours of intensive running induced significant increases both in extracellular TRP levels (from 120 min of exercise to 30 min of recovery) and 5-HIAA levels (from 90 min of exercise to 90 min of recovery). Pre-exercise administration of L-valine prevents significantly the exercise-induced 5-HT release: 5-HT levels are maintained to baseline during exercise and recovery. With regard to the competitive effect of L-valine with TRP, we could observe a treatment-induced decrease in brain TRP levels (from 120 min of exercise to the end of recovery). Besides, L-valine does not prevent exercise-induced increase in 5-HIAA levels. The present study evidences that an acute intensive exercise stimulates 5-HT metabolism in the rat hippocampus, and that a pre-exercise administration of L-valine prevents, via a limiting effect on 5-HT synthesis, exercise-induced 5-HT release. This study provides some anwers to previous human and animal investigations, showing physiological and psychological benefits of branched-chain amino acids supplementation on performance.

Site-dependent effects of an acute intensive exercise on extracellular 5-HT and 5-HIAA levels in rat brain.

Previous neurochemical studies have reported different pattern of 5-HT release during exercise varying across either exercise conditions or forebrain sites. This in vivo microdialysis study is the first to examine the impact of an acute intensive treadmill running (2 h at 25 m.min(-1), which is close to exhaustion time), on extracellular 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) levels in two different brain areas in rats, the ventral hippocampus and the frontal cortex. Hippocampal and cortical 5-HT levels increased significantly after 90 min of exercise and were maximal in the first 30 min of recovery. Thereafter, cortical 5-HT levels followed a rapid and significant decrease when hippocampal levels are still maximal. During exercise, changes in extracellular 5-HIAA levels paralleled 5-HT changes, but showed no difference between the two brain areas during recovery. Thus, an intensive exercise induces a delayed increase in brain 5-HT release but recovery seems to display site-dependent patterns.

Simultaneous NMR microdialysis study of brain glucose metabolism in relation to fasting or exercise in the rat.

To study the impact of exercise or fasting and of subsequent glucose supplementation on glucose metabolism in rats, a spectrophotometric method was used to determine peripheral blood glucose; a technique associating (1)H-NMR spectroscopy and cortical microdialysis was also used to observe intra- plus extracellular and extracellular brain glucose variations, respectively. Compared with control animals (204 +/- 19 microM in dialysate, n = 10), exercise increased brain extracellular glucose levels to 274 +/- 22 microM (n = 8; P < 0.05), whereas fasting induced a drop in glucose levels down to 140 +/- 9 microM (n = 8; P < 0.05). After fasting, glucose supplemented by infusion increased glycemia from 7.4 +/- 0.4 to 19.9 +/- 0.8 mM (n = 10; P < 0.001), as well as extracellular and extra- plus intracellular brain glucose to 263 +/- 20% (n = 8; P < 0.001) and 342 +/- 28% (n = 8; P < 0.001), respectively, over basal for that group. After exercise, a similar infusion increased glycemia from 7. 3 +/- 0.3 to 16.8 +/- 1.1 mM (n = 10; P < 0.001), as well as extracellular and extra- plus intracellular brain glucose to 178 +/- 19% (n = 8; P < 0.001) and 244 +/- 20% (n = 8; P < 0.001), respectively, over basal for that group. These results confirmed the existence of a link between glucose level variations in peripheral and cerebral areas but also showed that exercise increased extracellular brain glucose levels despite peripheral hypoglycemia, suggesting a specific regulation mechanism of cerebral glucose metabolism during exercise.