Magnetic solid-phase extraction method with modified magnetic ferroferric oxide nanoparticles in a deep eutectic solvent and high-performance liquid chromatography used for the analysis of pharmacologically active ingredients of Epimedium folium.

A novel magnetic adsorption nanomaterial was synthesized by the copolymerization of a deep eutectic solvent (DES) and chitosan (CS)-modified FeO particles. This material was proposed for the magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) of flavonoids from an aqueous extract solution of herbal Epimedium folium without pretreatment. Coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), a rapid, environmentally friendly, and efficacious method was established and successfully applied for the enrichment, separation, and quantification of five quality marker flavonoids (viz.

The analytical performance of six urine drug screens on cobas 6000 and ARCHITECT i2000 compared to LC-MS/MS gold standard.

Background: Immunoassays provide a rapid tool for the screening of drugs-of-abuse (DOA). However, results are presumptive and confirmatory testing is warranted. To reduce associated cost and delay, laboratories should employ assays with high positive and negative predictive values (PPVs and NPVs).

Differential metabolomics networks analysis of menopausal status.

Menopause is an endocrine-related transition that induces a number of physiological and potentially pathological changes in middle-aged and elderly women. The intention of this research was to investigate the influence of menopause on the intricate relationships between major biochemical metabolites. The study involved metabolic profiling of 186 metabolic markers measured in blood plasma collected from 120 healthy female participants.

Baseline urinary KIM-1 concentration in detecting acute kidney injury should be interpreted with patient pre-existing nephropathy.

Objectives: To determine whether pre-existing nephropathy impacts urinary KIM-1 levels, urinary KIM-1 were measured in patients with normal kidney filtration function but either with or without proteinuria. The reference intervals of urinary KIM-1 in adults with normal kidney filtration function but without urine proteinuria were established.

Design And Methods: 188 urine samples were obtained from adults with normal kidney filtration.

Differential metabolomics analysis allows characterization of diversity of metabolite networks between males and females.

Females and males are known to have different abilities to cope with stress and disease. This study was designed to investigate the effect of sex on properties of a complex interlinked network constructed of central biochemical metabolites. The study involved the blood collection and analysis of a large set of blood metabolic markers from a total of 236 healthy participants, which included 140 females and 96 males.

A classification modeling approach for determining metabolite signatures in osteoarthritis.

Multiple factors can help predict knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients from healthy individuals, including age, sex, and BMI, and possibly metabolite levels. Using plasma from individuals with primary OA undergoing total knee replacement and healthy volunteers, we measured lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC) and phosphatidylcholine (PC) analogues by metabolomics. Populations were stratified on demographic factors and lysoPC and PC analogue signatures were determined by univariate receiver-operator curve (AUC) analysis.

Hyperglycemia-related advanced glycation end-products is associated with the altered phosphatidylcholine metabolism in osteoarthritis patients with diabetes.

To test whether type 2 diabetic patients have an elevated level of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and responsible for altered phosphatidylcholine metabolism, which we recently found to be associated with osteoarthritis (OA) and diabetes mellitus (DM), synovial fluid (SF) and plasma samples were collected from OA patients with and without DM. Hyperglycemia-related AGEs including methylglyoxal (MG), free methylglyoxal-derived hydroimidazolone (MG-H1), and protein bound N-(Carboxymethyl)lysine (CML) and N-(Carboxyethyl)lysine (CEL) levels were measured in both SF and plasma samples using liquid chromatography coupled tandem mass spectrometry methodology. The correlation between these AGEs and phosphatidylcholine acyl-alkyl C34:3 (PC ae C34:3) and C36:3 (PC ae C36:3) were examined.

Lysophosphatidylcholines to phosphatidylcholines ratio predicts advanced knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To identify novel biomarker(s) for predicting advanced knee OA.

Methods: Study participants were derived from the Newfoundland Osteoarthritis Study and the Tasmania Older Adult Cohort Study. All knee OA cases were patients who underwent total knee replacement (TKR) due to primary OA.

Metabolomic analysis of human plasma reveals that arginine is depleted in knee osteoarthritis patients.

Objective: To identify novel biomarker(s) for knee osteoarthritis (OA) using a metabolomics approach.

Method: We utilized a two-stage case-control study design. Plasma samples were collected from knee OA patients and healthy controls after 8-h fasting and metabolically profiled using a targeted metabolomics assay kit.

Relationship between blood plasma and synovial fluid metabolite concentrations in patients with osteoarthritis.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between plasma and synovial fluid (SF) metabolite concentrations in patients with osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Blood plasma and SF samples were collected from patients with primary knee OA undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Metabolic profiling was performed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry using the AbsoluteIDQ kit.

Classification of osteoarthritis phenotypes by metabolomics analysis.

Objectives: To identify metabolic markers that can classify patients with osteoarthritis (OA) into subgroups.

Design: A case-only study design was utilised.

Participants: Patients were recruited from those who underwent total knee or hip replacement surgery due to primary OA between November 2011 and December 2013 in St.

The ketogenic diet: proposed mechanisms of action.

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet used to treat drug-resistant seizures, especially in children. A number of possible mechanisms of action have been proposed to explain the anticonvulsant effects of the diet. Four of these hypothetical mechanisms are discussed in the present article: the pH hypothesis, the metabolic hypotheses, the amino acid hypothesis, and the ketone hypothesis.

Acetone as an anticonvulsant.

Recent interest in the anticonvulsant effects of acetone has stemmed from studies related to the ketogenic diet (KD). The KD, a high-fat diet used to treat drug-resistant seizures, raises blood and brain levels of three ketones: beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and acetone. An obvious question is whether these ketones have anticonvulsant properties.

A ketogenic diet rescues the murine succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficient phenotype.

Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) deficiency is a heritable disorder of GABA degradation characterized by ataxia, psychomotor retardation and seizures. To date, there is no effective treatment for SSADH deficiency. We tested the hypothesis that a ketogenic diet (KD) would improve outcome in an animal model of SSADH deficiency, the SSADH knockout mouse (Aldh5a1-/-).

A ketogenic diet and diallyl sulfide do not elevate afterdischarge thresholds in adult kindled rats.

Introduction: Acetone has been shown to have broad-spectrum anticonvulsant actions in animal seizure models and has been hypothesized to play a role in the anticonvulsant mechanism of the ketogenic diet (KD). The present study examined the ability of a KD to elevate amygdaloid afterdischarge thresholds (ADT) in fully kindled rats. The effects of the KD were studied in the presence and absence of diallyl sulfide (DAS), an inhibitor of acetone metabolism.

Deoxycorticosterone's anticonvulsant effects in infant rats are blocked by finasteride, but not by indomethacin.

Deoxycorticosterone (DOC) is a steroid hormone that suppresses seizures in both humans and animals. At higher doses, DOC's anticonvulsant actions are accompanied by sedation and ataxia. The mechanism of DOC's anticonvulsant actions is not known, although it has been suggested that they may relate to DOC's secondary metabolite 3-alpha-5-alpha-tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC).

Carbenoxolone does not cross the blood brain barrier: an HPLC study.

Background: Carbenoxolone (CBX) is a widely used gap junctional blocker. Considering several reports indicating that transient gap junctional blockade could be a favourable intervention following injuries to central nervous tissue, and some current enthusiasm in studies using systemic injections of CBX, it is imperative to consider the penetration of CBX into central nervous tissue after systemic administrations. So far, only very indirect evidence suggests that CBX penetrates into the central nervous system after systemic administrations.

Breath acetone predicts plasma ketone bodies in children with epilepsy on a ketogenic diet.

Objective: The high-fat ketogenic diet has long been used to treat refractory childhood seizures, but whether there is a relation between the degree of ketosis and effectiveness of seizure control remains unclear. Frequent measurements of plasma ketones are difficult in children so the goal was to determine the utility of breath acetone as a marker of systemic ketosis and seizure control in children given the ketogenic diet because of seizures refractory to medication.

Methods: In experiment I, breath acetone and plasma ketones were assessed every 2 h during an 8-h test day in seven children.

A comparison of the ability of a 4:1 ketogenic diet and a 6.3:1 ketogenic diet to elevate seizure thresholds in adult and young rats.

Purpose: The pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) infusion test was used to compare seizure thresholds in adult and young rats fed either a 4:1 ketogenic diet (KD) or a 6.3:1 KD. We hypothesized that both KDs would significantly elevate seizure thresholds and that the 4:1 KD would serve as a better model of the KD used clinically.

The antidepressant properties of the ketogenic diet.

Background: The ketogenic diet is used to treat epilepsy refractory to anticonvulsant medication. Individuals with epilepsy often have behavioral problems and deficits in attention and cognitive functioning. The ketogenic diet has been found to effect improvements in these domains.

Effect of the ketogenic diet on the activity level of Wistar rats.

Children, adolescents, and adults with epilepsy often also show symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The ketogenic diet, which is administered to children with epilepsy refractory to drug therapy, seems to improve behavior in individuals with symptoms of ADHD. The basis for this improvement is unknown, although it seems to be unrelated to seizure control.

Anticonvulsant properties of acetone, a brain ketone elevated by the ketogenic diet.

The ketogenic diet (KD), a treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy, elevates brain acetone. Acetone has been shown to suppress experimental seizures. Whether elevation of acetone is the basis of the anticonvulsant effects of the KD and whether acetone, like the KD, antagonizes many different types of seizures, however, is unknown.