Liver Metabolomics Analysis Revealing Key Metabolites Associated with Different Stages of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Hamsters.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is not only the top cause of liver diseases but also a hepatic-correlated metabolic syndrome. This study performed untargeted metabolomics analysis of NAFLD hamsters to identify the key metabolites to discriminate different stages of NAFLD. METHODS: Hamsters were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) to establish the NAFLD model with different stages (six weeks named as the NAFLD1 group and twelve weeks as the NAFLD2 group, respectively). Those liver samples were analyzed by untargeted metabolomics (UM) analysis to investigate metabolic changes and metabolites to discriminate different stages of NAFLD. RESULTS: The significant liver weight gain in NAFLD hamsters was observed, accompanied by significantly increased levels of serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Moreover, the levels of TG, LDL-C, ALT, and AST were significantly higher in the NAFLD2 group than in the NAFLD1 group. The UM analysis also revealed the metabolic changes; 27 differently expressed metabolites were detected between the NAFLD2 and NAFLD1 groups. More importantly, the levels of N-methylalanine, allantoin, glucose, and glutamylvaline were found to be significantly different between any two groups (control, NAFLD2 and NAFLD1). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) curve results also showed that these four metabolites are able to distinguish control, NAFLD1 and NAFLD2 groups. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that the process of NAFLD in hamsters is accompanied by different metabolite changes, and these key differently expressed metabolites may be valuable diagnostic biomarkers and responses to therapeutic interventions.

Highly selective photocatalytic oxidation of alcohols under the application of novel metal organic frameworks (MOFs) based catalytic system.

Carboxylic acid is one of the most crucial and widely used organic chemicals in daily human life activities. Hence preparation of this important chemical was performed under the application of the highly selective photo-catalysts through oxidation of alcohols to carboxylic acids. Herein, we have designed and disclosed a binary NH2-MIL-125(Ti)/ NaBr) catalyst system to realize the effective transformation of alcohols into carboxylic acids under visible light irradiation. Hence, derivatives of benzyl alcohol containing either electron withdrawing and donating groups as well as aliphatic primary alcohols were effectively converted into the corresponding carboxylic acids. Based on our findings, NH2-MIL-125(Ti) based photocatalytic system has shown efficient and highly selective activities for oxidation of alcohol especially the in-situ conversion of co-catalyst NaBr into the corresponding free radical can enhance the alcohol oxidation performance of the catalytic system.

Sensitive and selective detections of mustard gas and its analogues by 4-mercaptocoumarins as fluorescent chemosensors in both solutions and gas phase.

Mustard gas has been used as a chemical warfare agent for a century, and is the most likely chemical weapon used in wars or by terrorists. Thus, it is important to develop a facile, rapid and highly selective method for the detection of mustard gas. In this paper, two fluorescent probe molecules, 4-mercaptocoumarins, have been developed for rapid and sensitive detections of SM and its analogues (CEES and NH1) in both solutions and gas phase. The sensing reaction is a nucleophilic addition at three-membered hetercyclic sulfonium/ammonium formed from SM, CEES/NH1 in ethanol. Two fluorescent probes (4-mercaptocoumarins, ArSH) in ethanol deprotonate to form thiophenol anions (ArS-) resulting from their low pKa values (3.2-3.4), and the nucleophilic addition of the anion ArS- generates the corresponding thioethers, giving a turn-on fluorescence response. The thiophenol anion can fast sense SM, CEES and NH1 (within 1-4 min) with high sensitivity (~nM level) at 60 °C, and high selectivity through adding a tertiary amine, and two probes exhibit excellent chemical and photostability in detection systems. Furthermore, a facile test strip with the sensor was fabricated for the detection of CEES vapor with rapid response (3 min), high sensitivity (9 ppb) and high selectivity.

Synthesis of Oxadiazolones with Hydrazides: The Mechanism and the Sensing Application as Sensitive, Rapid, and Visual Fluorescent Sensors for Phosgene.

The reaction of hydrazides with triphosgene in the presence of triethylamine is a facile method to construct various oxadiazolones. Utilizing this reaction, a new class of colorimetric and fluorogenic phosgene chemosensors were developed with the BODIPY as fluorophore, five BODIPY-based hydrazides, which exhibited highly effective reactions with phosgene. The mechanism was updated. Finally, the test paper with a hydrazide was fabricated for facile, selective, and visual detection of phosgene gas.