Chemical Tagging with Mass Spectrometry Analysis for Sensitive Determination of Carboxylic Enantiomers in Hepatic Fibrosis.

Carboxylic enantiomers are prevalent in living organisms and synthetic samples that exhibit important biological properties. The profiling of carboxylic enantiomers is beneficial for monitoring physiological states and further unraveling the metabolism mechanisms between carboxylic enantiomers and diseases. In this study, pairs of light and heavy isotope reagents, ()-(3-aminopiperidin-1-yl) phenyl-methanone/-()-(3-aminopiperidin-1-yl) phenyl-methanone (APMA/-APMA), were synthesized and applied to tag the enantiomers of carboxylic metabolites and drugs.

Peptide-based electrochemical sensor with nanogold enhancement for detecting rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disorder, is an incurable disease. We developed a peptide-based electrochemical sensor using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy that can be used to detect autoantibodies for RA diagnostics. We first validated that the developed peptide showed high sensitivity and could compliment the current gold standard method of an anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) ELISA.

Genotoxic Klebsiella pneumoniae in Taiwan.

Background: Colibactin is a nonribosomal peptide-polyketide synthesized by multi-enzyme complexes encoded by the pks gene cluster. Colibactin-producing Escherichia coli have been demonstrated to induce host DNA damage and promote colorectal cancer (CRC) development. In Taiwan, the occurrence of pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) has been suggested to correlate with an increasing risk of CRC, and Klebsiella pneumoniae is the predominant PLA pathogen in Taiwan.