Recreational exposure during algal bloom in carrasco beach, uruguay: A liver failure case report

In January 2015, a 20-month-old child and her family took part in recreational activities at Carrasco and Malvín beaches (Montevideo, Uruguay). An intense harmful algae bloom (HAB) was developing along the coast at that time. A few hours after the last recreational exposure episode, the family suffered gastrointestinal symptoms which were self-limited except in the child’s case, who was admitted to hospital in Uruguay with diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, and jaundice. The patient had increased serum levels of liver enzymes and bilirubin and five days later presented acute liver failure. She was referred to the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires, being admitted with grade II-III encephalopathy and hepatomegaly and requiring mechanical respiratory assistance. Serology tests for hepatitis A, B, and C, Epstein-Barr virus, and cytomegalovirus were negative. Laboratory features showed anemia, coagulopathy, and increased serum levels of ammonium, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and bilirubin. Autoimmune Hepatitis Type-II (AH-II) was the initial diagnosis based on a liver kidney microsomal type 1 antibodies (LKM-1) positive result, and twenty days later a liver transplant was performed. The liver histopathology had indicated hemorrhagic necrosis in zone 3, and cholestasis and nodular regeneration, which were not characteristic of AH-II. LC/ESI-HRMS (liquid chromatography electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry) analysis of MCs in the explanted liver revealed the presence of Microsytin-LR (MC-LR) (2.4 ng·gr-1 tissue) and [D-Leu1]MC-LR (75.4 ng·gr-1 tissue), which constitute a toxicological nexus and indicate a preponderant role of microcystins in the development of fulminant hepatitis.Fil: Vidal, Flavia. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Sedan, Daniela Yazmine. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Química. Centro de Investigaciones del Medio Ambiente; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: D'Agostino, Daniel. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Cavalieri, María Lorena. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Mullen, Eduardo. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Parot Varela, María Macarena. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Flores, Cintia. Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua; EspañaFil: Caixach, Josep. Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua; EspañaFil: Andrinolo, Dario. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Química. Centro de Investigaciones del Medio Ambiente; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Metabolomics-based biomarker discovery for bee health monitoring : a proof of concept study concerning nutritional stress in Bombus terrestris

Bee pollinators are exposed to multiple natural and anthropogenic stressors. Understanding the effects of a single stressor in the complex environmental context of antagonistic/synergistic interactions is critical to pollinator monitoring and may serve as early warning system before a pollination crisis. This study aimed to methodically improve the diagnosis of bee stressors using a simultaneous untargeted and targeted metabolomics-based approach. Analysis of 84 Bombus terrestris hemolymph samples found 8 metabolites retained as potential biomarkers that showed excellent discrimination for nutritional stress. In parallel, 8 significantly altered metabolites, as revealed by targeted profiling, were also assigned as candidate biomarkers. Furthermore, machine learning algorithms were applied to the above-described two biomarker sets, whereby the untargeted eight components showed the best classification performance with sensitivity and specificity up to 99% and 100%, respectively. Based on pathway and biochemistry analysis, we propose that gluconeogenesis contributed significantly to blood sugar stability in bumblebees maintained on a low carbohydrate diet. Taken together, this study demonstrates that metabolomics-based biomarker discovery holds promising potential for improving bee health monitoring and to identify stressor related to energy intake and other environmental stressors

Metabolomic characterization of strawberry cultivars during postharvest

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is the berry most consumed worldwide and is well-known for its delicate flavour and nutritional characteristics. However, strawberries possess a very short postharvest shelf-life due to their high respiration rate and their susceptibility to water loss, mechanical damage and fungi deterioration. Extension of fruit shelf-life is a major economic goal, and measures are commercially taken to delay senescence. These procedures include low temperature, controlled atmosphere and/or chemical treatments, being the first one the most commonly applied. To improve our understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying the deterioration of fruit quality attributes during senescence, we monitored the metabolomic profiles of five commercial strawberry cultivars under different postharvest treatments. Ripe fruits of F x ananassa cv. ‘Amiga’, ‘Camarosa’, ‘Candonga’, ‘Fortuna’ and ‘Santa Clara’ were harvested and kept at 4ºC during three, six and ten days in normal, CO2-enriched and O3-enriched atmospheres. We used a combination of GC-TOF-MS, LC-MS and GC-SPME-MS to identify and semi-quantify 49 primary metabolites (sugars, amino and organic acids), 132 polar secondary metabolites and 70 volatile compounds in all different treatments along postharvest stages. Multivariate statistical approaches, including hierarchical cluster analysis, partial least squares discriminant analyses and k-means clustering, were used to characterize the variation in metabolite content during the strawberry fruit postharvest life and to identify the biochemical pathways which are most affected in the senescence processes. Here, we present the main changes in volatile compounds, primary and secondary metabolites as a consequence of postharvest storage, highlighting the differences between cultivars and treatments. Network-based methods will allow us to point out the regulatory factors and molecular mechanisms underlying fruit senescence.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Trace organic compound analyses of micrometer-sized asteroidal materials

第7回極域科学シンポジウム:[OA] 南極隕石/はやぶさ11月30日（水）国立国語研究所 2階講

Peptidomic and glycomic profiling of commercial dairy products: identification, quantification and potential bioactivities.

Peptidomics and glycomics are recently established disciplines enabling researchers to characterize functional characteristics of foods at a molecular level. Milk-derived bioactive peptides and oligosaccharides have garnered both scientific and commercial interest because they possess unique functional properties, such as anti-hypertensive, immunomodulatory and prebiotic activities; therefore, the objective of this work was to employ peptidomic and glycomic tools to identify and measure relative and absolute quantities of peptides and oligosaccharides in widely consumed dairy products. Specifically, we identified up to 2117 unique peptides in 10 commercial dairy products, which together represent the most comprehensive peptidomic profiling of dairy milk in the literature to date. The quantity of peptides, measured by ion-exchange chromatography, varied between 60 and 130 mg/L among the same set of dairy products, which the majority originated from caseins, and the remaining from whey proteins. A recently published bioactive peptide database was used to identify 66 unique bioactive peptides in the dataset. In addition, 24 unique oligosaccharide compositions were identified in all the samples by nano LC Chip QTOF. Neutral oligosaccharides were the most abundant class in all samples (66-91.3%), followed by acidic (8.6-33.7%), and fucosylated oligosaccharides (0-4.6%). Variation of total oligosaccharide concentration ranged from a high of 65.78 to a low of 24.82 mg/L. Importantly, characterizing bioactive peptides and oligosaccharides in a wider number of dairy products may lead to innovations that go beyond the traditional vision of dairy components used for nutritional purposes but that will rather focus on improving human health