Polyamines, one of the most important kind of biomarkers in cancer research, were investigated in order to characterize different cancer types. An integrative approach which combined ultra-high performance liquid chromatography—tandem mass spectrometry detection and multiple statistical data processing strategies including outlier elimination, binary logistic regression analysis and cluster analysis had been developed to discover the characteristic biomarkers of lung and liver cancer. The concentrations of 14 polyamine metabolites in biosamples from lung (n = 50) and liver cancer patients (n = 50) were detected by a validated UHPLC-MS/MS method. Then the concentrations were converted into independent variables to characterize patients of lung and liver cancer by binary logic regression analysis. Significant independent variables were regarded as the potential biomarkers. Cluster analysis was engaged for further verifying. As a result, two values was discovered to identify lung and liver cancer, which were the product of the plasma concentration of putrescine and spermidine; and the ratio of the urine concentration of S-adenosyl-l-methionine and N-acetylspermidine. Results indicated that the established advanced method could be successfully applied to characterize lung and liver cancer, and may also enable a new way of discovering cancer biomarkers and characterizing other types of cancer.

Epidemiological, cross-sectional, and prospective studies have suggested that insomnia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and depression are mutually interacting conditions and frequently co-occur. The monoamine and amino acid neurotransmitter systems in central nervous system were involved in the examination of neurobiological processes of this symptom complex. However, few studies have reported systematic and contrastive discussion of different neurotransmitters (NTs) changing in these neurological diseases. Thus, it is necessary to establish a reliable analytical method to monitoring NTs and their metabolite levels in rat brain tissues for elucidating the differences in pathophysiology of these neurological diseases. A rapid, sensitive and reliable LC-MS/MS method was established for simultaneous determination of the NTs and their metabolites, including tryptophan (Trp), tyrosine (Tyr), serotonin (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid (5-HIAA), dopamine (DA), acetylcholine (ACh), norepinephrine (NE), glutamic acid (Glu), and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in rat brain tissues. The mobile phase consisting of methanol and 0.01% formic acid in water was performed on an Inertsil EP C18 column, and the developed method was validated well. Results demonstrated that there were significant differences for 5-HT, DA, NE, Trp, Tyr and ACh between model and control group in all three models, and a Bayes linear discriminant function was established to distinguish these three kinds of nervous system diseases by DA, Tyr and ACh for their significant differences among control and three model groups. It could be an excellent strategy to provide perceptions into the similarity and differentia of mechanisms from the point of NTs’ changing in brain directly and a new method to distinguish insomnia, depression and AD from view of essence.

The Wu-Zhu-Yu decoction is a traditional Chinese medicine formula for the treatment of headache. To reveal its material basis, a rapid and reliable liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry method was established for comprehensive profiling of the chemical ingredients in the Wu-Zhu-Yu decoction. The method was used on a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer along with an advanced data processing procedure consisting of mass accuracy screening, mass defect filtering and fragment filtering. After eliminating interference with a filtering approach, the MS data profiling was made more distinct and accurate. With the optimized conditions of only 35 min LC separation and single sample injection of each positive or negative ion mode, a total of 168 compounds were characterized, including 23 evodiamine and its analogous alkaloids, 12 limonoids, 17 gingerols, 38 ginsenosides, 15 flavonoids, 16 organic acids, 14 alkaloids, 5 saponins, 3 2,2-dimethylchromenes and 25 other compounds. The fragmentation patterns of representative compounds were illustrated as well. Integrative qualitative analysis of the Wu-Zhu-Yu decoction by high resolution mass spectrometry was accomplished and reported for the first time. The study demonstrated that the established method was a powerful and reliable strategy for comprehensive detection and would be widely applicable for identification of complicated components from herbal prescriptions, and may provide a basis for chemical analysis of other complex mixtures.