Antonio Checa

Dietary nitrate reduces resting metabolic rate: a randomized, crossover study in humans

BACKGROUNDnNitrate, which is an inorganic anion abundant in vegetables, increases the efficiency of isolated human mitochondria. Such an effect might be reflected in changes in the resting metabolic rate (RMR) and formation of reactive oxygen species. The bioactivation of nitrate involves its active accumulation in saliva followed by a sequential reduction to nitrite, nitric oxide, and other reactive nitrogen species.nnnOBJECTIVEnWe studied effects of inorganic nitrate, in amounts that represented a diet rich in vegetables, on the RMR in healthy volunteers.nnnDESIGNnIn a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, we measured the RMR by using indirect calorimetry in 13 healthy volunteers after a 3-d dietary intervention with sodium nitrate (NaNO₃) or a placebo (NaCl). The nitrate dose (0.1 mmol · kg⁻¹ · d⁻¹) corresponded to the amount in 200-300 g spinach, beetroot, lettuce, or other vegetable that was rich in nitrate. Effects of direct nitrite exposure on cell respiration were studied in cultured human primary myotubes.nnnRESULTSnThe RMR was 4.2% lower after nitrate compared with placebo administration, and the change correlated strongly to the degree of nitrate accumulation in saliva (r² = 0.71). The thyroid hormone status, insulin sensitivity, glucose uptake, plasma concentration of isoprostanes, and total antioxidant capacity were unaffected by nitrate. The administration of nitrite to human primary myotubes acutely inhibited respiration.nnnCONCLUSIONSnDietary inorganic nitrate reduces the RMR. This effect may have implications for the regulation of metabolic function in health and disease.

Classification and characterisation of Spanish red wines according to their appellation of origin based on chromatographic profiles and chemometric data analysis

Chromatographic profiles of wines have been used as a fingerprint for the discrimination of Spanish wines based on oenological practices. In order to extract information of different families of phenolic compounds, profiles of different UV-vis absorption wavelengths (280, 310, 370 and 520nm) and fluorescence (ex=260nm; em=360nm) were analysed. A total of thirteen phenolic compounds which allowed the discrimination of wines of three different Spanish appellations (Penedes, Rioja and Ribera del Duero) were selected by means of principal component analysis (PCA). Afterwards, these compounds were used to build partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS1-DA and PLS2-DA) models which allowed the discrimination of wines according to their appellation with classification rates for independent test sets higher than 96% and 93% for PLS1-DA and PLS2-DA models respectively. Finally, characteristic compounds of each appellation were tentatively identified by means of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. Thus, ten out of thirteen compounds (i.e., gallic acid for Penedes, trans-coumaroyltartaric and trans-caffeoyltartaric acids for Rioja and myricetin for Ribera del Duero wines) have been proposed.

Determination of polyphenols in Spanish wines by capillary zone electrophoresis. Application to wine characterization by using chemometrics.

A capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method for the simultaneous determination of 20 polyphenols in wine was developed. The separation was performed using fused-silica capillaries of 75 μm i.d. and a 30 mM sodium tretraborate buffer solution at pH 9.2 with 5% isopropanol as a background electrolyte. A capillary voltage of +25 kV with pressure-assisted (3.5 kPa) separation from minute 18 was applied, thus achieving a total analysis time of <25 min. Instrumental quality parameters such as limits of detection (LOD, values between 0.3 and 2.6 mg/L), linearity (r(2) > 0.990), and run-to-run and day-to-day precisions (RSD values lower than 6.5 and 15.7%, respectively) were established. Three different calibration procedures were evaluated for polyphenol quantitation in wines: external calibration using standards prepared in Milli-Q water, standard addition, and pseudomatrix-matched calibration using wine as a matrix. For a 95% confidence level, no statistical differences were observed, in general, between the three calibration methods (p values between 0.11 and 0.84), whereas for some specific polyphenols, such as cinnamic acid, syringic acid, and gallic acid, results were not comparable when external calibration was used. The CZE method using pseudomatrix-matched calibration was then proposed and applied to the analysis of polyphenols in 49 Spanish wines, showing satisfactory results and a wide compositional variation between wines. Electrophoretic profiles and other compositional data (e.g., peak areas of selected peaks) were considered as fingerprints of wines to be used for characterization and classification purposes. The corresponding data were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) to extract information on the most significant features contributing to wine discrimination according to their origins. Results showed that a reasonable distribution of wines depending on the elaboration areas was found, tyrosol and gallic, protocatechuic, p-coumaric, and caffeic acids being some representative discriminant compounds.

Dietary nitrate improves age-related hypertension and metabolic abnormalities in rats via modulation of angiotensin II receptor signaling and inhibition of superoxide generation

Advanced age is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. A proposed central event is diminished amounts of nitric oxide (NO) due to reduced generation by endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) and increased oxidative stress. In addition, it is widely accepted that increased angiotensin II (ANG II) signaling is also implicated in the pathogenesis of endothelial dysfunction and hypertension by accelerating formation of reactive oxygen species. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that dietary nitrate supplementation could reduce blood pressure and improve glucose tolerance in aged rats, via attenuation of NADPH oxidase activity and ANG II receptor signaling. Dietary nitrate supplementation for two weeks reduced blood pressure (10-15mmHg) and improved glucose clearance in old, but not in young rats. These favorable effects were associated with increased insulin responses, reduced plasma creatinine as well as improved endothelial relaxation to acetylcholine and attenuated contractility to ANG II in resistance arteries. Mechanistically, nitrate reduced NADPH oxidase-mediated oxidative stress in the cardiovascular system and increased cGMP signaling. Finally, nitrate treatment in aged rats normalized the gene expression profile of ANG II receptors (AT1A, AT2, AT1A/AT2 ratio) in the renal and cardiovascular systems without altering plasma levels of renin or ANG II. Our results show that boosting the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway can partly compensate for age-related disturbances in endogenous NO generation via inhibition of NADPH oxidase and modulation of ANG II receptor expression. These novel findings may have implications for nutrition-based preventive and therapeutic strategies against cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Effects of long-term dietary nitrate supplementation in mice

Background Inorganic nitrate (NO3-) is a precursor of nitric oxide (NO) in the body and a large number of short-term studies with dietary nitrate supplementation in animals and humans show beneficial effects on cardiovascular health, exercise efficiency, host defense and ischemia reperfusion injury. In contrast, there is a long withstanding concern regarding the putative adverse effects of chronic nitrate exposure related to cancer and adverse hormonal effects. To address these concerns we performed in mice, a physiological and biochemical multi-analysis on the effects of long-term dietary nitrate supplementation. Design 7 week-old C57BL/6 mice were put on a low-nitrate chow and at 20 weeks-old were treated with NaNO3 (1 mmol/L) or NaCl (1 mmol/L, control) in the drinking water. The groups were monitored for weight gain, food and water consumption, blood pressure, glucose metabolism, body composition and oxygen consumption until one group was reduced to eight animals due to death or illness. At that point remaining animals were sacrificed and blood and tissues were analyzed with respect to metabolism, cardiovascular function, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Results Animals were supplemented for 17 months before final sacrifice. Body composition, oxygen consumption, blood pressure, glucose tolerance were measured during the experiment, and vascular reactivity and muscle mitochondrial efficiency measured at the end of the experiment with no differences identified between groups. Nitrate supplementation was associated with improved insulin response, decreased plasma IL-10 and a trend towards improved survival. Conclusions Long term dietary nitrate in mice, at levels similar to the upper intake range in the western society, is not detrimental.

Lipidomic data analysis: Tutorial, practical guidelines and applications

Lipids are a broad group of biomolecules involved in diverse critical biological roles such as cellular membrane structure, energy storage or cell signaling and homeostasis. Lipidomics is the -omics science that pursues the comprehensive characterization of lipids present in a biological sample. Different analytical strategies such as nuclear magnetic resonance or mass spectrometry with or without previous chromatographic separation are currently used to analyze the lipid composition of a sample. However, current analytical techniques provide a vast amount of data which complicates the interpretation of results without the use of advanced data analysis tools. The choice of the appropriate chemometric method is essential to extract valuable information from the crude data as well as to interpret the lipidomic results in the biological context studied. The present work summarizes the diverse methods of analysis than can be used to study lipidomic data, from statistical inference tests to more sophisticated multivariate analysis methods. In addition to the theoretical description of the methods, application of various methods to a particular lipidomic data set as well as literature examples are presented.

Determination of polyphenols in wines by liquid chromatography with UV spectrophotometric detection

This paper describes a new chromatographic method for the determination of polyphenolic compounds in wines. The method is based on the separation of analytes by reversed-phase mode in a C18 column (2.6 μm particle size) and UV absorption spectroscopy. The elution gradient is generated from 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution and acetonitrile as an organic modifier. Experimental conditions including pH, percentage of organic modifier and elution gradient profile have been thoroughly optimized using experimental design. A multi-objective function has been defined as a criterion for obtaining a satisfactory compromise among number of compounds separated, resolution and analysis time. Multi-detection at 280, 310 and 370 nm has been utilized in order to work under the most appropriate wavelengths for each compound. Figures of merit including linearity ranges, precisions, detection limits and recoveries have been established under selected experimental conditions using synthetic standards and commercial red wines. The method has been applied to analyze red wines from various Spanish regions.

Harmonizing lipidomics: NIST interlaboratory comparison exercise for lipidomics using SRM 1950–Metabolites in Frozen Human Plasma

As the lipidomics field continues to advance, self-evaluation within the community is critical. Here, we performed an interlaboratory comparison exercise for lipidomics using Standard Reference Material (SRM) 1950–Metabolites in Frozen Human Plasma, a commercially available reference material. The interlaboratory study comprised 31 diverse laboratories, with each laboratory using a different lipidomics workflow. A total of 1,527 unique lipids were measured across all laboratories and consensus location estimates and associated uncertainties were determined for 339 of these lipids measured at the sum composition level by five or more participating laboratories. These evaluated lipids detected in SRM 1950 serve as community-wide benchmarks for intra- and interlaboratory quality control and method validation. These analyses were performed using nonstandardized laboratory-independent workflows. The consensus locations were also compared with a previous examination of SRM 1950 by the LIPID MAPS consortium. While the central theme of the interlaboratory study was to provide values to help harmonize lipids, lipid mediators, and precursor measurements across the community, it was also initiated to stimulate a discussion regarding areas in need of improvement.

Metabolomics analysis identifies different metabotypes of asthma severity

In this study, we sought to determine whether asthma has a metabolic profile and whether this profile is related to disease severity. We characterised the serum from 22 healthy individuals and 54 asthmatics (12 mild, 20 moderate, 22 severe) using liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. Selected metabolites were confirmed by targeted mass spectrometry assays of eicosanoids, sphingolipids and free fatty acids. We conclusively identified 66 metabolites; 15 were significantly altered with asthma (p≤0.05). Levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, cortisone, cortisol, prolylhydroxyproline, pipecolate and N-palmitoyltaurine correlated significantly (p<0.05) with inhaled corticosteroid dose, and were further shifted in individuals treated with oral corticosteroids. Oleoylethanolamide increased with asthma severity independently of steroid treatment (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed two patterns: 1) a mean difference between controls and patients with mild asthma (p=0.025), and 2) a mean difference between patients with severe asthma and all other groups (p=1.7×10−4). Metabolic shifts in mild asthma, relative to controls, were associated with exogenous metabolites (e.g. dietary lipids), while those in moderate and severe asthma (e.g. oleoylethanolamide, sphingosine-1-phosphate, N-palmitoyltaurine) were postulated to be involved in activating the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) receptor, driving TRPV1-dependent pathogenesis in asthma. Our findings suggest that asthma is characterised by a modest systemic metabolic shift in a disease severity-dependent manner, and that steroid treatment significantly affects metabolism. Mild asthma is metabolically distinct from both moderate and severe asthma, and steroid treatment affects metabolism http://ow.ly/EHo7306DwmN

Quantitative metabolic profiling of lipid mediators

Lipids are heterogeneous biological molecules that possess multiple physiological roles including cell structure, homeostasis, and restoration of tissue functionality during and after inflammation. Lipid metabolism constitutes a network of pathways that are related at multiple biosynthetic hubs. Disregulation of lipid metabolism can lead to pathophysiological effects and multiple lipid mediators have been described to be involved in physiological processes, (e.g. inflammation). Accordingly, a thorough description of these pathways may shed light on putative relations in multiple complex diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, Alzheimers disease, multiple sclerosis, obesity, and cancer. Due to the structural complexity of lipids and the low abundance of many lipid mediators, mass spectrometry is the most commonly employed method for analysis. However, multiple challenges remain in the efforts to analyze every lipid subfamily. In this review, the biological role of sphingolipids, glycerolipids, oxylipins (e.g. eicosanoids), endocannabinoids, and N-acylethanolamines in relation to health and disease and the state-of-the-art analyses are summarized. The characterization and understanding of these pathways will increase our ability to examine for interrelations among lipid pathways and improve the knowledge of biological mechanisms in health and disease.