The flavonoid dihydromyricetin (DMY) is the main component of Ampelopsis grossedentata (Hand‐Mazz) W. T. Wang (AG), a daily beverage and folk medicine used in Southern China to treat jaundice hepatitis, cold fever, and sore throat. Recently, DMY and AG were shown to have a beneficial effect on lipid metabolism disorder. However, the mechanisms of how DMY and AG protect the liver during lipid metabolism disorder remain unclear. In this study, we first analyzed the chemical compounds of AG by HPLC‐DAD‐ESI‐IT‐TOF‐MSⁿ. Of the 31 compounds detected, 29 were identified based on previous results. Then, the effects of DMY and AG on high‐fat diet hamster livers were studied and the metabolite levels and metabolic pathway activity of the liver were explored by ¹H NMR metabolomics. Compared to the high‐fat diet group, supplementation of AG and DMY attenuated the high‐fat‐induced increase in body weight, liver lipid deposition, serum triglycerides and total cholesterol levels, and normalized endogenous metabolite concentrations. PCA and PLS‐DA score plots demonstrated that while the metabolic profiles of hamsters fed a high‐fat diet supplemented with DMY or AG were both far from those of hamsters fed a normal diet or a high‐fat diet alone, they were similar to each other. Our data suggest that the underlying mechanism of the protective effect of DMY and AG might be related to an attenuation of the deleterious effect of high‐fat diet‐induced hyperlipidemia on multiple metabolic pathways including amino acid metabolism, ketone body metabolism, energy metabolism, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and enhanced fatty acid oxidation.

Rubusoside is a natural sweetener and the active component of Rubus suavissimus. The preventive and therapeutic effect of rubusoside on high-fat diet-induced (HFD) serum metabolite changes in golden hamsters was analyzed by ¹H-NMR metabolomics to explore the underlying mechanism of lipid metabolism regulation. ¹H-NMR serum metabolomics analyses revealed a disturbed amino acid-, sugar-, fat-, and energy metabolism in HFD animals. Animals supplemented with rubusoside can partly reverse the metabolism disorders induced by high-fat diet and exerted good anti-hypertriglyceridemia effect by intervening in some major metabolic pathways, involving amino acid metabolism, synthesis of ketone bodies, as well as choline and 4-hydroxyphenylacetate metabolism. This study indicates that rubusoside can interfere with and normalize high-fat diet-induced metabolic changes in serum and could provide a theoretical basis to establish rubusoside as a potentially therapeutic tool able to revert or prevent lipid metabolism disorders.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is characterized by the gradual loss of renal mass and functions. It has become a global health problem, with hundreds of millions of people being affected. Both its incidence and prevalence are increasing over time. More than $20,000 are spent on each patient per year. The economic burden on the patients, as well as the society, is heavy and their life quality worsen over time. However, there are still limited effective therapeutic strategies for CKD. Patients mainly rely on dialysis and renal transplantation, which cannot prevent all the complications of CKD. Great efforts are needed in understanding the nature of CKD progression as well as developing effective therapeutic methods, including pharmacological agents. This paper reviews three aspects in the research of CKD that may show great interests to those who devote to bioanalysis, biomedicine and drug development, including important endogenous biomarkers quantification, mechanisms underlying CKD progression and current status of CKD therapy.