Qianxu Yang

Discrimination of type 2 diabetes mellitus corresponding to different traditional Chinese medicine syndromes based on plasma fatty acid profiles and chemometric methods

AIMS OF THE STUDY Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history and particular advantages in the diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Syndrome differentiation is the foundation and essence of TCM theories. The aims of the study are to discriminate T2DM corresponding to different syndromes (Qi-deficiency, Qi and Yin-deficiency and Damp heat) and discover syndrome-related biomarkers using metabolomics technology. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plasma fatty acid profiles of 85 clinical samples were established by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Moreover, some of the lipid parameters, including total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), were obtained through clinical testing methods. Orthogonal signal correction-partial least squares (OSC-PLS) and uncorrelated linear discriminant analysis (ULDA) were employed to establish two-class models for three different syndromes. RESULTS Compared with the plasma fatty acid profiles of healthy controls, the characteristic fatty acids of three TCM syndromes were discovered (p<0.01). Totally, the plasma fatty acids of T2DM were up-regulated, while significant differences existed in different syndromes. Results of ULDA indicate that the three TCM syndromes could be effectively separated by the plasma fatty acid profiles and the syndrome-related biomarkers were also screened. CONCLUSIONS The fact that three TCM syndromes can be separated indicates certain metabolic differences in different TCM syndromes of T2DM really exist and such differences can be manifested by fatty acids and lipid parameters. The results benefit modern biological interpretation of the three TCM syndromes and in a sense the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.

Rapid simultaneous quantitative determination of terpenoids in Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

A rapid and sensitive method for simultaneous quantitative determination of terpenoids in Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF) was developed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS). In this method, five major terpenoids, including triptolide, triptonide, demethylzelastral, tripterine and wilforlide A, with large content range in TwHF, were determined simultaneously in a UHPLC run of 4.5 minutes. The intra-day and inter-day precisions of five terpenoids were less than 4.58% and 4.82%, respectively, and the mean recovery rates obtained were in the range of 97.2% to 104.5%. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r2 > 0.996) from 20 ng mL−1 and 20 000 ng mL−1. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were less than 5.7 ng mL−1 and 19.0 ng mL−1. Compared with previous studies, this method could be employed for accurate quantification of five terpenoids in different parts and products of TwHF in a very short time after simple ultrasonic extraction. The results indicated that this method would provide a rapid and sensitive way for evaluating the quality of the TwHF and its products.

Facile synthesis of β-MnO2/polypyrrole nanorods and their enhanced lithium-storage properties

In this work, a β-MnO2/polypyrrole (β-MnO2/PPy) composite was prepared by a facile solvothermal method. The conductivity of the polymer PPy deposited on the surface of MnO2 can significantly improve the electronic conductivity and accommodate the volume change. Compared with pristine β-MnO2, β-MnO2/PPy exhibited excellent cycling performance and superior rate capability when used as anode for lithium-ion batteries.

DETERMINATION OF PLASMA AMINO ACID BIOMARKERS BY HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR DIAGNOSIS OF TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS

The use of the fasting plasma glucose and 2-h plasma glucose tolerance tests leads to under-diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. To explore the contribution of metabolites for diagnosis for type 2 diabetes, plasma targeted metabolites (including free amino acids, lipids, and two hepatic aminotransferases) of 95 subjects were determined by high performance liquid chromatography and routine clinical methods. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was employed to evaluate potential diagnosis models. Based on the processing of orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis, five amino acids (lysine, aspartate acid, threonine, methionine, and alanine) and two lipids (low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol) were discovered as potential biomarkers of type 2 diabetes. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve built by the combination of these biomarkers and fasting plasma glucose was 0.994, which is significantly higher than that of the latter alone (0.907). These findings indicate that simultaneous measurement of specific metabolites with fasting plasma glucose from a single blood test for screening type 2 diabetes might be a more sensitive and specific strategy and provide additional insight regarding disease pathophysiologic mechanisms.

Rapid Screening of Active Components with an Osteoclastic Inhibitory Effect in Herba epimedii Using Quantitative Pattern-Activity Relationships Based on Joint-Action Models.

Screening of bioactive components is important for modernization and quality control of herbal medicines, while the traditional bioassay-guided phytochemical approach is time-consuming and laborious. The presented study proposes a strategy for rapid screening of active components from herbal medicines. As a case study, the quantitative pattern–activity relationship (QPAR) between compounds and the osteoclastic inhibitory effect of Herba epimedii, a widely used herbal medicine in China, were investigated based on joint models. For model construction, standard mixtures data showed that the joint-action models are better than the partial least-squares (PLS) model. Then, the Good2bad value, which could reflect components’ importance based on Monte Carlo sampling, was coupled with the joint-action models for screening of active components. A compound (baohuoside I) and a component composed of compounds with retention times in the 6.9–7.9 min range were selected by our method. Their inhibition rates were higher than icariin, the key bioactive compound in Herba epimedii, which could inhibit osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption in a previous study. Meanwhile, the half-maximal effective concentration, namely, EC50 value of the selected component was 7.54 μg/mL, much smaller than that of baohuoside I—77 μg/mL—which indicated that there is synergistic action between compounds in the selected component. The results clearly show our proposed method is simple and effective in screening the most-bioactive components and compounds, as well as drug-lead components, from herbal medicines.

Urinary Fatty Acid Composition and Biomarkers Discovery for Type 2 Diabetic Patients Based on Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole/Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry and Multivariate Statistical Analysis

A strategy of high sensitive assay method of urine fatty acid profiles was established based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF) and applied in metabolomics research of diabetes mellitus. In this way, 19 fatty acids including two pair of hard-resolved isomers were separated well in only 13 minutes, and Q-TOF mass spectrometry reduced the matrix interference of urine samples by high resolution and accurate molecular weights. Under the optimal conditions, fatty acid profiles of 93 cases of urine samples were analyzed. Fatty acid profiles of type 2 diabetes mellitus showed large differences from health controls based on multivariate data analysis; C16:0, C18:0, C18:2, C20:5, and C22:6 were screened as potential clinical biomarkers. This work is complementary to the clinical diagnosis of diabetes mellitus; additionally, noninvasive testing of urine samples made it more convenient for examination while reducing the patients pain and improving their living conditions.