DNA promoter methylation of tumor suppressor genes and global DNA hypomethylation are common features of head and neck cancers. Our goal was to identify early DNA methylation changes in oral premalignant lesions (OPL) that may serve as predictive markers of developing oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Using high-throughput DNA methylation profiles of 24 OPLs, we found that the top 86 genes d...

BACKGROUND Hypersensitivity diseases are associated with many severe human illnesses, including leprosy and tuberculosis. Emerging evidence suggests that the pathogenesis and pathological mechanisms of treating these diseases may be attributable to sphingolipid metabolism. METHODS High performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was employed to target and measure 43 core sphing...

Findings from epidemiology, preclinical and clinical studies indicate that consumption of coffee could have beneficial effects against dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The benefits appear to come from caffeinated coffee, but not decaffeinated coffee or pure caffeine itself. Therefore, the objective of this study was to use metabolomics approach to delineate the discriminant metabolites be...

Fast and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with chemometric methods was utilized to assist in the quality assessment of Cangzhu (Atractylodis Rhizoma). By comparative analysis of chromatographic profiles, twelve common peaks were selected for multivariate analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-D...

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes with high capability of invasion and rapid metastasis to other organs. Malignant melanoma is the most common metastatic malignancy found in Gastrointestinal Tract (GI). In this work, the 1H NMR-based metabolomics approach is used to investigate the metabolite profile differences of stomach tissue extracts of metastatic B16-F10 melanoma and control gr...

This study identified differences in plasma metabolites among three groups of dairy cows: type I ketotic (K1), type II ketotic (K2), and healthy control cows (C). 50 cows with two or three parities were selected at 7–28 days postpartum. Cows were classified as type I ketotic (K1, 20 cows), type II ketotic (K2, 20 cows), or healthy control cows (C, 10 cows). Plasma metabolomic profiles were anal...

AMBER force fields are among the most commonly used in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of proteins. Unfortunately, they lack a specific set of lipid parameters, thus limiting its use in membrane protein simulations. In order to overcome this limitation we assessed whether the widely used united-atom lipid parameters described by Berger and co-workers could be used in conjunction with AMBER ...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination in grape production is an important problem worldwide. Microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) have been demonstrated as useful tools to identify different toxigenic strains. In this study, Aspergillus carbonarius strains were classified into two groups, moderate toxigenic strains (MT) and high toxigenic strains (HT), according to OTA-forming ability. The M...

In light of global reef decline new methods to accurately, cheaply, and quickly evaluate coral metabolic states are needed to assess reef health. Metabolomic profiling can describe the response of individuals to disturbance (i.e., shifts in environmental conditions) across biological models and is a powerful approach for characterizing and comparing coral metabolism. For the first time, we asse...

BACKGROUND In our recent study, tissue proteomic analysis of oral pre-malignant lesions (OPLs) and normal oral mucosa led to the identification of a panel of biomarkers, including prothymosin alpha (PTMA), to distinguish OPLs from histologically normal oral tissues. This study aimed to determine the clinical significance of PTMA overexpression in oral squamous cell hyperplasia, dysplasia and he...