Dietary cystine restriction increases the proliferative capacity of the small intestine of mice.

Currently, over 88 million people are estimated to have adopted a vegan or vegetarian diet. Cysteine is a semi-essential amino acid, which availability is largely dependent on dietary intake of meat, eggs and whole grains. Vegan/vegetarian diets are therefore inherently low in cysteine.

Rifaximin stimulates nitrogen detoxification by PXR-independent mechanisms in human small intestinal organoids.

Background And Aims: Recurrent hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is characterized by hyperammonaemia in combination with neuropsychiatric abnormalities and is treated with lactulose and rifaximin. Rifaximin is a pregnane X receptor (PXR) agonist with low systemic and high intestinal bioavailability. The mechanisms by which it alleviates HE are unclear.

Rewiring glucose metabolism improves 5-FU efficacy in p53-deficient/KRAS glycolytic colorectal tumors.

Despite the fact that 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is the backbone for chemotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC), the response rates in patients is limited to 50%. The mechanisms underlying 5-FU toxicity are debated, limiting the development of strategies to improve its efficacy. How fundamental aspects of cancer, such as driver mutations and phenotypic heterogeneity, relate to the 5-FU response remains obscure.

Pancreatic cancer organoids recapitulate disease and allow personalized drug screening.

We report the derivation of 30 patient-derived organoid lines (PDOs) from tumors arising in the pancreas and distal bile duct. PDOs recapitulate tumor histology and contain genetic alterations typical of pancreatic cancer. In vitro testing of a panel of 76 therapeutic agents revealed sensitivities currently not exploited in the clinic, and underscores the importance of personalized approaches for effective cancer treatment.

The influence of neuronal electrical activity on the mammalian central clock metabolome.

Introduction: Most organisms display circadian rhythms in physiology and behaviour. In mammals, these rhythms are orchestrated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Recently, several metabolites have emerged as important regulators of circadian timekeeping.

Sheathless Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry for Metabolic Profiling of Biological Samples.

In metabolomics, a wide range of analytical techniques is used for the global profiling of (endogenous) metabolites in complex samples. In this paper, a protocol is presented for the analysis of anionic and cationic metabolites in biological samples by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS). CE is well-suited for the analysis of highly polar and charged metabolites as compounds are separated on the basis of their charge-to-size ratio.

Sheathless capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for anionic metabolic profiling.

The performance of CE coupled on-line to MS via a sheathless porous tip sprayer was evaluated for anionic metabolic profiling. A representative metabolite mixture and biological samples were used for the evaluation of various analytical parameters, such as peak efficiency (plate numbers), migration time and peak area repeatability, and LODs. The BGE, i.