Special Issue Editors

Dr. Valentina Longo
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Guest Editor

National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: GC–MS; solid phase microextraction (SPME/GC–MS); volatile organic compounds (VOCs); headspace; breath analysis; volatilomics; clinical biochemistry; bioinformatics; multivariate analysis; environmental contaminants

Prof. Dr. Sara Rinalducci
E-Mail Website

SciProfiles

Guest Editor

Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences (DEB), University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: proteomics/metabolomics/lipidomics; systems biology; post-translational modifications; plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses; omics for health and disease
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last years, targeted and untargeted analysis of biological fluid metabolome represented excellent tools in several fields, in particular in clinical and environmental ones. in fact, there are numerous researches in which metabolome fingerprinting is used either in disease diagnosis and prognosis or, on the other side, for biomonitoring of pollutant compounds.

The techniques applied in these types of study are different. Separation instruments vary from Gas Chromatography (GC) to High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), with an implementation in HRGC (High resolution GC) and UHPLC (Ultra HPLC). Most used detectors are Mass Spectrometer (MS), FID (Flame Ionization Detector) and ECD (Electron Capture Detector). Analysis of all small molecules (volatile, semi- or non-volatile compounds) present in biological matrices is guaranteed from the combination of this instrumentation.

Contributions (original research articles, communications or reviews) dealing with blood, urine, breath, human semen, saliva and sweat metabolomics analysis by GC-MS, HPLC-MS and other separation-detection systems are welcome.

Dr. Valentina Longo
Prof. Dr. Sara Rinalducci
Guest Editors

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Keywords

clinical metabolomics
environmental metabolomics
volatile organic compounds
gas-chromatography
high performance liquid chromatography
mass spectrometry
environmental pollutants
human biomonitoring
biological fluids
exposome

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Red Blood Cell Metabolism in Patients with Propionic Acidemia

Micaela Kalani Roy

Francesca Isabelle Cendali

and

Separations 2021, 8(9), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations8090142 - 03 Sep 2021

Viewed by 617

Abstract

Propionic acidemia (PA) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder with an estimated incidence of 1:100,000 live births in the general population. Due in part to an insufficient understanding of the disease’s pathophysiology, PA is often associated with complications, and in severe cases can cause coma and death. Despite its association with hematologic disorders, PA’s effect on red blood cell metabolism has not been described. Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics analyses were performed on RBCs from healthy controls (n = 10) and PKD patients (n = 3). PA was associated with a significant decrease in the steady state level of glycolytic products and the apparent activation of the PPP. The PA samples showed decreases in succinate and increases in the downstream dicarboxylates of the TCA cycle. BCAAs were lowered in the PA samples and C3 carnitine, a direct metabolite of propionic acid, was increased. Trends in the markers of oxidative stress including hypoxanthine, allantoate and spermidine were the opposite of those associated with elevated ROS burden. The alteration of short chain fatty acids, the accumulation of some medium chain and long chain fatty acids, and decreased markers of lipid peroxidation in the PA samples contrasted with previous research. Despite limitations from a small cohort, this study provides the first investigation of RBC metabolism in PA, paving the way for targeted investigations of the critical pathways found to be dysregulated in the context of this disease. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Metabolites in Biological Fluids)

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Open AccessArticle

Quantitative Capillary Electrophoresis for Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles (EVqCE)

Yuchu Dou

Lixuan Ren

Prabir Kumar Kulabhusan

Emil A. Zaripov

and

Maxim V. Berezovski

Separations 2021, 8(8), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations8080110 - 29 Jul 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 881

Abstract

Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) gained significant interest within the last decade as a new source of biomarkers for the early detection of diseases and a promising tool for therapeutic applications. In this work, we present Extracellular Vesicles Quantitative Capillary Electrophoresis (EVqCE) to measure an average mass of RNA in EVs, determine EV concentrations and the degree of EV degradation after sample handling. We used EVqCE to analyze EVs isolated from conditioned media of three cancer cell lines. EVqCE employs capillary zone electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescent detection to separate intact EVs from free nucleic acids. After lysis of EVs with a detergent, the encapsulated nucleic acids are released. Therefore, the initial concentration of intact EVs is calculated based on a nucleic acid peak gain. EVqCE works in a dynamic range of EV concentrations from 10⁸ to 10¹⁰ particles/mL. The quantification process can be completed in less than one hour and requires minimum optimization. Furthermore, the average mass of RNA was found to be in the range of 200–400 ag per particle, noting that more aggressive cancer cells have less RNA in EVs (200 ag per particle) than non-aggressive cancer cells (350 ag per particle). EVqCE works well for the degradation analysis of EVs. Sonication for 10 min at 40 kHz caused 85% degradation of EVs, 10 freeze-thaw cycles (from −80 °C to 22 °C) produced 40%, 14-day storage at 4 °C made 32%, and vortexing for 5 min caused 5% degradation. Presently, EVqCE cannot separate and distinguish individual EV populations (exosomes, microvesicles, apoptotic bodies) from each other. Still, it is tolerant to the presence of non-EV particles, protein-lipid complexes, and protein aggregates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Metabolites in Biological Fluids)

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