Complex metabolic interactions between ovary, plasma, urine, and hair in ovarian cancer

Worm-Based Diagnosis Combining Microfluidics toward Early Cancer Screening

Early cancer diagnosis increases therapy efficiency and saves huge medical costs. Traditional blood-based cancer markers and endoscopy procedures demonstrate limited capability in the diagnosis. Reliable, non-invasive, and cost-effective methods are in high demand across the world. Worm-based diagnosis, utilizing the chemosensory neuronal system of C. elegans, emerges as a non-invasive approach for early cancer diagnosis with high sensitivity. It facilitates effectiveness in large-scale cancer screening for the foreseeable future. Here, we review the progress of a unique route of early cancer diagnosis based on the chemosensory neuronal system of C. elegans. We first introduce the basic procedures of the chemotaxis assay of C. elegans: synchronization, behavior assay, immobilization, and counting. Then, we review the progress of each procedure and the various cancer types for which this method has achieved early diagnosis. For each procedure, we list examples of microfluidics technologies that have improved the automation, throughput, and efficiency of each step or module. Finally, we envision that microfluidics technologies combined with the chemotaxis assay of C. elegans can lead to an automated, cost-effective, non-invasive early cancer screening technology, with the development of more mature microfluidic modules as well as systematic integration of functional modules.

Selpercatinib combination with the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ effectively suppresses RET-mutant thyroid cancer

Genetic alternation of REarranged during Transfection (RET) that leads to constitutive RET activation is a crucial etiological factor for thyroid cancer. RET is known to regulate mitochondrial processes, although the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. We previously showed that the multi-kinase inhibitors vandetanib and cabozantinib increase the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) in RET-mutated thyroid tumor cells and that this effect can be exploited to increase mitochondrial enrichment of Δψm-sensitive agents in the tumor cells. In this study, we hypothesized that the RET-selective inhibitor, selpercatinib, can increase Δψm and, subsequently, tumor cell uptake of the mitochondria-targeted ubiquinone (MitoQ) to the level to break the mitochondrial homeostasis and induce lethal responses in RET-mutated thyroid tumor cells. We show that selpercatinib significantly increased Δψm, and its combination with MitoQ synergistically suppressed RET-mutated human thyroid tumor cells, which we validated using RET-targeted genetic approaches. Selpercatinib and MitoQ, in combination, also suppressed CCDC6-RET fusion cell line xenografts in mice and prolonged animal survival more effectively than single treatments of each agent. Moreover, we treated two patients with CCDC6-RET or RETM918T thyroid cancer, who could not take selpercatinib at regular doses due to adverse effects, with a dose-reduced selpercatinib and MitoQ combination. In response to this combination therapy, both patients showed tumor reduction. The quality of life of one patient significantly improved over a year until the tumor relapsed. This combination of selpercatinib with MitoQ may have therapeutic potential for patients with RET-mutated tumors and intolerant to regular selpercatinib doses.

Characterization of Hair Metabolome in 5xFAD Mice and Patients with Alzheimer's Disease Using Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics

Hair emerged as a biospecimen for long-term investigation of endogenous metabolic perturbations, reflecting the chemical composition circulating in the blood over the past months. Despite its potential, the use of human hair for metabolomics in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research remains limited. Here, we performed both untargeted and targeted metabolomic approaches to profile the key metabolic pathways in the hair of 5xFAD mice, a widely used AD mouse model. Furthermore, we applied the discovered metabolites to human subjects. Hair samples were collected from 6-month-old 5xFAD mice, a stage marked by widespread accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain, followed by sample preparation and high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis. Forty-five discriminatory metabolites were discovered in the hair of 6-month-old 5xFAD mice compared to wild-type control mice. Enrichment analysis revealed three key metabolic pathways: arachidonic acid metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, and alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. Among these pathways, six metabolites demonstrated significant differences in the hair of 2-month-old 5xFAD mice, a stage prior to the onset of amyloid plaque deposition. These findings suggest their potential involvement in the early stages of AD pathogenesis. When evaluating 45 discriminatory metabolites for distinguishing patients with AD from nondemented controls, a combination of l-valine and arachidonic acid significantly differentiated these two groups, achieving a 0.88 area under the curve. Taken together, these findings highlight the potential of hair metabolomics in identifying disease-specific metabolic alterations and developing biomarkers for improving disease detection and monitoring.

Critical Factors in Sample Collection and Preparation for Clinical Metabolomics of Underexplored Biological Specimens

This review article compiles critical pre-analytical factors for sample collection and extraction of eight uncommon or underexplored biological specimens (human breast milk, ocular fluids, sebum, seminal plasma, sweat, hair, saliva, and cerebrospinal fluid) under the perspective of clinical metabolomics. These samples are interesting for metabolomics studies as they reflect the status of living organisms and can be applied for diagnostic purposes and biomarker discovery. Pre-collection and collection procedures are critical, requiring protocols to be standardized to avoid contamination and bias. Such procedures must consider cleaning the collection area, sample stimulation, diet, and food and drug intake, among other factors that impact the lack of homogeneity of the sample group. Precipitation of proteins and removal of salts and cell debris are the most used sample preparation procedures. This review intends to provide a global view of the practical aspects that most impact results, serving as a starting point for the designing of metabolomic experiments.