Predicting lupus membranous nephritis using reduced picolinic acid to tryptophan ratio as a urinary biomarker.

The current gold standard for classifying lupus nephritis (LN) progression is a renal biopsy, which is an invasive procedure. Undergoing a series of biopsies for monitoring disease progression and treatments is unlikely suitable for patients with LN. Thus, there is an urgent need for non-invasive alternative biomarkers that can facilitate LN class diagnosis.

High-Resolution QTOF-MRM for Highly Accurate Identification and Quantification of Trace Levels of Triterpenoids in Mycelium.

The accurate quantification of triterpenoids in mushroom in the mycelium stage is challenging due to their low concentrations, interference from other possible isomers, and the complex matrix. Here, a high-resolution quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry "multiple reaction monitoring" with target enhancement (HR-QTOF-MRM) method was developed to quantify seven target triterpenoids in . The performance of this method was compared against an optimized QQQ-MRM method.

Natural ACE inhibitory peptides discovery from Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) strain C1.

Bioactive peptides from natural sources are utilized as food supplements for disease prevention and are increasingly becoming targets for drug discovery due to their specificity, efficacy and the absence of undesirable side effects, among others. Hence, the 'SpirPep' platform was developed to facilitate the in silico-based bioactive peptide discovery of these highly sought-after biomolecules from Spirulina(Arthrospira platensis) and to select the protease (thermolysin) used for in vitro digestion. Analysis of the predicted and experimentally-derived peptides suggested that they were mainly involved in ACE inhibition; thus, an ACEi assay was used to study the ACE inhibitory activity of five candidate peptides (SpirPep1-5), chosen from common peptides with multifunctional bioactivity and 100% bioactive peptide coverage, originating from phycobiliproteins.

SpirPep: an in silico digestion-based platform to assist bioactive peptides discovery from a genome-wide database.

Background: Bioactive peptides, including biological sources-derived peptides with different biological activities, are protein fragments that influence the functions or conditions of organisms, in particular humans and animals. Conventional methods of identifying bioactive peptides are time-consuming and costly. To quicken the processes, several bioinformatics tools are recently used to facilitate screening of the potential peptides prior their activity assessment in vitro and/or in vivo.