Publications by authors named "Marcia A LeVatte"
Article Synopsis
- Urinary N, N-diacetylspermine (DAS) is a low-concentration biomarker for colorectal cancer, but current detection methods are complex and costly, creating a demand for simpler alternatives, especially for low-resource settings.
- This study introduces an efficient, inexpensive colorimetric assay using recombinant diacetylspermine oxidase (rDAS Ox) to oxidize DAS, which produces hydrogen peroxide and generates a pink color proportional to DAS levels in urine.
- A novel two-column ion exchange resin protocol was developed to remove interfering metabolites and concentrate DAS, enabling detection of as little as 1 μM DAS and demonstrating effective correlation with known DAS concentrations in urine samples.
Article Synopsis
- * Despite the importance of micronutrients, there is still a gap in understanding their molecular effects and how to effectively assess deficiencies in populations.
- * Advances in technologies like genomics and metabolomics provide a unique opportunity to connect micronutrient exposure to cellular health, leading to new strategies for preventing deficiencies and promoting collaborative research across different scientific fields.
Article Synopsis
- Cannabis is increasingly popular for both medicinal and recreational use, leading to a rising interest in its chemical components and effects.
- Current information on cannabis chemistry is often outdated or scattered, prompting the need for a more organized resource.
- A new Cannabis Compound Database has been created using modern metabolomics and bioinformatics techniques to compile detailed information on over 6000 chemical constituents, making it a centralized and accessible tool for researchers and the cannabis community.
Hippuric acid is an abundant metabolite in human urine. Urinary hippuric acid levels change with toxic exposure to aromatic compounds, consumption of fruits and vegetables, cancers, chronic kidney disease, schizophrenia and Crohn's disease. While urinary hippuric acid can be detected and quantified via mass spectrometry or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a colorimetric assay would be preferable for a low-cost, point-of care clinical assay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreparation and characterization of a highly soluble Aβ peptide variant.
Protein Expr Purif
December 2019
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurological disease marked by the accumulation and deposition of misfolded amyloid beta or Abeta (Aβ) peptide. Two species of Aβ peptides are found in amyloid plaques, Aβ and Aβ with the latter being the more amyloidogenic of the two. Understanding how and why Aβ peptides misfold, oligomerize and form amyloid plaques requires a detailed understanding of their structure and dynamics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe presence of ascorbate in human urine has been shown to be a useful dietary, fruit or vitamin C intake biomarker. More recently it has been discovered that ascorbate levels in urine can be used to facilitate the detection of precancerous colorectal polyps. While there are a number elaborate HPLC, MS or multi-step enzymatic "kit" methods to detect and quantify urinary ascorbate, these are time consuming and expensive.
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