Plasma free amino acid profiling of esophageal cancer using high-performance liquid chromatography spectroscopy

AIM:To perform plasma free amino acid(PFAA)profiling of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)patients at different pathological stages and healthy subjects.METHODS:Plasma samples from ESCC patients(n=51)and healthy control adults(n=60)were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC).The ESCC patients included moderate/poorly-differentiation(n=24),lymph node metastasis(n=17)and clinical stage>Ib2(n=36).Partial least squares discriminant analysis was performed to demonstrate that the PFAA metabolic patterns enabled discrimination between ESCC patients and controls,and the Student t test was applied to assess significant differences in PFAA concentrations between the two groups.RESULTS:There were significant differences in the PFAA profiles between controls and ESCC patients.Compared with healthy controls,the levels of Asp,Glu,Gly,His,Thr,Tau,Ala,Met,Ile,Leu,and Phe were decreased in ESCC patients,but Cys was increased.There exists a strong correlation between PFAA profiles and clinicopathological characteristics in ESCC patients.The levels of many PFAAs(i.e.,Glu,Asp,Ser,Gly,Tau,Ala,Tyr,Val,Ile,and Leu)were related to pathological grading,lymph node metastasis,and ESCC clinical stage.Very good discrimination between ESCC patients and control subjects was achieved by multivariate modeling of plasma profiles.CONCLUSION:HPLC-based plasma profiling analysis was shown to be an effective approach to differentiate between ESCC patients and controls.PFAA profiles may have potential value for screening or diagnosing ESCC.

Decreased blood riboflavin levels are correlated with defective expression of RFT2 gene in gastric cancer

AIM:To investigate the relationship between blood riboflavin levels and riboflavin transporter 2(RFT2) gene expression in gastric carcinoma(GC) development.METHODS:High-performance liquid chromatography was used to detect blood riboflavin levels in patients with GC.Real-time fluorogenic quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry were used to analyze the expression of RFT2 mRNA and protein in samples from 60 GC patients consisting of both tumor and normal tissue.RESULTS:A significant decrease in the RFT2 mRNA levels was detected in GC samples compared with those in the normal mucous membrane(0.398 ± 0.149 vs 1.479 ± 0.587;P = 0.040).Tumors exhibited low RFT2 protein expression(75%,16.7%,8.3% and 0% for no RFT2 staining,weak staining,medium staining and strong staining,respectively),which was significantly lower than that in the normal mucous membrane(10%,16.7%,26.7% and 46.7% for no RFT2 staining,weak staining,medium staining and strong staining,respectively;P < 0.05).Tumors with low RFT2 expression were significantly associated with tumor stage and histological grade.Moreover,a significantly decrease in Uyghur patients was observed compared with Han patients.However,other parameters-gender,tumor location and lymph node metastasis-showed no significant relationship with RFT2 expression.Blood riboflavin levels were reverse correlated with development of GC(1.2000 ± 0.97 569 ng/mL in high tumor stage patients vs 2.5980 ± 1.31 129 ng/mL in low tumor stage patients;P < 0.05).A positive correlation of plasma riboflavin levels with defective expression of RFT2 protein was found in GC patients(2 = 2.619;P = 0.019).CONCLUSION:Defective expression of RFT2 is associated with the development of GC and this may represent a mechanism underlying the decreased plasma riboflavin levels in GC.

The origins of Uyghur medicine: Debates and perspectives

Uyghur medicine refers to the traditional medicine of the people residing in the oases of the Taklamakan desert in the North-West corner of modern China.Due to historical and geographical reasons,the ancestors of the modern Uyghurs had extensive contact with Greco-Roman civilization even beginning in the 4th century BCE,and continuing with different extent until the 6th century CE.Thus,the knowledge of Greek humoral medicine spread to the Uyghur regions.When Arab-Persian medicine arrived along with Islam in the 10th century,it met both Buddhist medicine and the developed folk medicine.In this paper,we argue that“Greco-Roman”,“Arab-Persian”and“Uyghur”medicines are all of essentially the same system under holistic humoral medicine.We further assert that“Traditional European Medicine”is based on the same tradition,and,while it was discarded in the West,it has been substantially preserved by the Uyghurs.We also consider the implications of making the two millennial tradition of Uyghur medicine the object of modern scientific research in China.

An magnetic resonance-based plasma metabonomic investigation on abnormal Savda in different complicated diseases

OBJECTIVE: To provide potential evidence for the existence of abnormal Savda, we assessed host metabonomic responses and dynamic changes occurring in various diseases using1H nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)-based metabonomics.METHODS: Plasma samples taken from patients with complicated diseases with abnormal Savda(n=140, including 35 cases each of diabetes, asthma,breast cancer, and cervical carcinoma) and from healthy controls(n=35) were analyzed by1H NMR(600 MHz), and the spectral profiles were analyzed by multivariate analysis using orthogonal projection to latent structure with discriminant analysis.RESULTS: Supervised modeling of the data provided very good discrimination between patients and healthy controls. Compared with the healthy controls, the patient groups with different disease conditions displayed similar metabolic changes, characterized by lower creatine, creatinine, lactate, and amino acid levels(including isoleucine, leucine, valine, alanine, and 1-methylhistidine) and higher lipid levels(very low-density lipoproteins and unsaturated lipids). Additionally, cancer patients(breast and cervical) showed decreased myo-inositol,α-glucose, and β-glucose, and increased pyruvate and carnitine in plasma.CONCLUSION:The data indicate that decreased oxidative defense, liver function abnormalities, amino acid deficiencies, and energy metabolism disorders are common characteristics of complicated diseases, which may be related to the formation of abnormal Savda.

Plasma amino acid profiling of cancer patients with abnormal Savda based on high-performance liquid chromatography

OBJECTIVE: To investigate metabolic signatures in plasma of cancer patients with abnormal Savda using plasma-free amino acid profiles, and to evaluate the diagnostic potential of these profiles for the detection and explanation of the mechanisms of different symptoms in traditional Uyghur medicine.METHODS: Plasma samples from cancer patients with abnormal Savda(n=85) or non-abnormal Savda(n=105) and a healthy control group(n=65)were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). Orthogonal projection to latent structures with discriminant analysis was used for the classification and prediction of abnormal Savda, and spectral profiles were subjected to Student's t-tests to assess statistical significance.RESULTS: Compared with the healthy group, the levels of aspartic acid, glutamate, glycine, histidine,arginine, threonine, alanine, proline, methionine,isoleucine, leucine and phenylalanine decreased significantly in plasma of cancer patients with abnormal Savda(all P<0.05). Serine, cystine, tyrosine,valine and lysine levels showed no significant differences(all P>0.05). Compared with non-abnormal Savda syndrome patients, abnormal Savda syndrome patients showed high concentrations of glutamate, serine, valine, isoleucine, leucine and phenylalanine(all P<0.05). The remaining plasma amino acids showed no significant differences(all P>0.05).CONCLUSION: Plasma-free amino acid profiling has the potential to assist in understanding and determining abnormal Savda. A HPLC-based metabonomic platform could be a powerful tool for the classification of symptoms in traditional medicine.