Monitoring type 2 diabetes from volatile faecal metabolome in Cushing's syndrome and single Afmid mouse models via a longitudinal study.

The analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a non-invasive method for disease monitoring, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) has shown potential over the years although not yet set in clinical practice. Longitudinal studies to date are limited and the understanding of the underlying VOC emission over the age is poorly understood. This study investigated longitudinal changes in VOCs present in faecal headspace in two mouse models of T2D - Cushing's syndrome and single Afmid knockout mice.

A double-blind, randomised trial of a polyphenolic-rich nail bed balm for chemotherapy-induced onycholysis: the UK polybalm study.

Purpose: Nail damage is common amongst patients receiving chemotherapy causing disfigurement and pain. This investigation evaluated whether a topical balm containing steam-extracted, bioactive polyphenolic-rich herbal oils blended with organic waxes could protect the nails via their reported anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-oxidant and anti-microbial properties.

Methods: 60 patients (23M, 37F) were randomised to apply (2-3/day) either the plant balm (PB) or a petroleum control (PC) to their nail beds.

Differences in microbial metabolites in urine headspace of subjects with Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) detected by volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis and metabolomics.

ITP is an organ-specific autoimmune disorder characterised by a low platelet count whose cause is uncertain. A possible factor is food intolerance, although much of the information linking this with ITP is anecdotal. The role of food intolerance in ITP was studied by replacing a normal diet with an elemental diet (E028), but this did not increase platelet counts.

Use of the Analysis of the Volatile Faecal Metabolome in Screening for Colorectal Cancer.

Diagnosis of colorectal cancer is an invasive and expensive colonoscopy, which is usually carried out after a positive screening test. Unfortunately, existing screening tests lack specificity and sensitivity, hence many unnecessary colonoscopies are performed. Here we report on a potential new screening test for colorectal cancer based on the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the headspace of faecal samples.

Assessment of temporal dose-toxicity relationship of fumed silica nanoparticle in human lung A549 cells by conventional cytotoxicity and ¹H-NMR-based extracellular metabonomic assays.

As nanoparticles could form aggregates in biological systems, the dynamics of their dispersity drives the temporal effect of nanoparticles in vitro. To test this hypothesis, the fumed silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) that have primary sizes of 7-14 nm and form aggregates in culture medium were selected for toxicity study in human lung A549 cells. The dispersity of SiNPs was analyzed by dynamic light scattering and transmission of electron microscopy.

Analysis of volatile organic compounds of bacterial origin in chronic gastrointestinal diseases.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine whether volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the headspace of feces could be used to diagnose or distinguish between chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and apparently healthy volunteers.

Methods: A total of 87 people were recruited, divided between 4 categories: healthy volunteers (n = 19), Crohn's disease (n = 22), ulcerative colitis (n = 20), and irritable bowel syndrome (n = 26). They each supplied fecal samples before, and except for the healthy volunteers, after treatment.

MMpred: functional miRNA--mRNA interaction analyses by miRNA expression prediction.

Background: MicroRNA (miRNA) directed gene repression is an important mechanism of posttranscriptional regulation. Comprehensive analyses of how microRNA influence biological processes requires paired miRNA-mRNA expression datasets. However, a review of both GEO and ArrayExpress repositories revealed few such datasets, which was in stark contrast to the large number of messenger RNA (mRNA) only datasets.

Diversity and distribution of sulphate-reducing bacteria in human faeces from healthy subjects and patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

The relative abundance of different groups of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in faecal DNA collected before and after therapy from patients suffering from Crohn's disease (CD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or ulcerative colitis (UC) has been compared with that from healthy controls. Growth tests revealed that SRB were not more abundant in samples from patients with CD before treatment than in the healthy control group. For most of the 128 samples available, these preliminary results were confirmed using degenerate PCR primers that amplify the dsrAB gene.

Optical assay for biotechnology and clinical diagnosis.

In this paper, we present an optical diagnostic assay consisting of a mixture of environmental-sensitive fluorescent dyes combined with multivariate data analysis for quantitative and qualitative examination of biological and clinical samples. The performance of the assay is based on the analysis of spectrum of the selected fluorescent dyes with the operational principle similar to electronic nose and electronic tongue systems. This approach has been successfully applied for monitoring of growing cell cultures and identification of gastrointestinal diseases in humans.

Evaluation of a gas sensor array and pattern recognition for the identification of bladder cancer from urine headspace.

Previous studies have indicated that volatile compounds specific to bladder cancer may exist in urine headspace, raising the possibility that headspace analysis could be used for diagnosis of this particular cancer. In this paper, we evaluate the use of a commercially available gas sensor array coupled with a specifically designed pattern recognition algorithm for this purpose. The best diagnostic performance that we were able to obtain with independent test data provided by healthy volunteers and bladder cancer patients was 70% overall accuracy (70% sensitivity and 70% specificity).

Electronic-nose technology using sputum samples in diagnosis of patients with tuberculosis.

We investigated the potential of two different electronic noses (EN; code named "Rob" and "Walter") to differentiate between sputum headspace samples from tuberculosis (TB) patients and non-TB patients. Only samples from Ziehl-Neelsen stain (ZN)- and Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture-positive (TBPOS) sputum samples and ZN- and culture-negative (TBNEG) samples were used for headspace analysis; with EN Rob, we used 284 samples from TB suspects (56 TBPOS and 228 TBNEG samples), and with EN Walter, we used 323 samples from TB suspects (80 TBPOS and 243 TBNEG samples). The best results were obtained using advanced data extraction and linear discriminant function analysis, resulting in a sensitivity of 68%, a specificity of 69%, and an accuracy of 69% for EN Rob; for EN Walter, the results were 75%, 67%, and 69%, respectively.

Application of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for cleaning verification in pharmaceutical manufacture.

Cleaning verification is the process by which pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment is determined as sufficiently clean to allow manufacture to continue. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a very sensitive spectroscopic technique capable of detection at levels appropriate for cleaning verification. In this paper, commercially available Klarite SERS substrates were employed in order to obtain the necessary enhancement of signal for the identification of chemical species at concentrations of 1 to 10 ng/cm2, which are relevant to cleaning verification.

Rapid qualitative and quantitative analysis of opiates in extract of poppy head via FTIR and chemometrics: towards in-field sensors.

Identification and quantification of the opiates morphine and thebaine has been achieved in three commercial poppy cultivars using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy, from a simple and rapid methanolic extraction, suitable for field analysis. The limits of detection were 0.13 mg/ml (0.

Multiple fiber-optic dual-beam UV/Vis system with application to dissolution testing.

A system for fiber-optic probing in dissolution testing of solid pharmaceutical formulations has been constructed. The system is based on an imaging spectrometer and a charged coupled device (CCD) detector and includes 12 fiber-optic probes with a novel dual-path design. UV light was produced by a small arc deuterium lamp illuminating an optical fiber bundle.