Towards a platform for the metabonomic profiling of different strains of <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> using liquid chromatography-Fourier transform mass spectrometry

A platform based on hydrophilic interaction chromatography in combination with Fourier transform mass spectrometry was developed in order to carry out metabonomics of Drosophila melanogaster strains. The method was able to detect ∼ 230 metabolites, mainly in the positive ion mode, after checking to eliminate false positives caused by isotope peaks, adducts and fragment ions. Two wild-type strains, Canton S and Oregon R, were studied, plus two mutant strains, Maroon Like and Chocolate. In order to observe the differential expression of metabolites, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses of the different strains were compared using sieve 1.2 software to extract metabolic differences. The output from sieve was searched against a metabolite database using an Excel-based macro written in-house. Metabolic differences were observed between the wild-type strains, and also between both Chocolate and Maroon Like compared with Oregon R. It was established that a metabonomic approach could produce results leading to the generation of new hypotheses. In addition, the structure of a new class of lipid with a histidine head group, found in all of the strains of flies, but lower in Maroon Like, was elucidated

Prevalence and Awareness of Hypertension among a Rural Jazan Population

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is a major global public health problem. Knowledge of the risk factors and repercussions of HTN is crucial to preventing the disease. Rural populations have lower levels of knowledge of the disease than urban populations. However, no studies have assessed the levels of awareness of HTN and their determinants in rural regions of Saudi Arabia. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the awareness of HTN and its determinants among a rural population of Jazan region, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional analytical study among six primary healthcare centers selected randomly from the rural areas of Jazan region. We targeted all Saudi adults visiting these centers. Information was gathered using interview questionnaires completed by 607 people. SPSS was utilized to analyze the collected data. Results: In all population groups, the prevalence of diagnosed HTN increased with age, particularly gradually increasing in those aged younger than 40 years and then rapidly and sharply increasing in those aged 40 years and over. The women (43.3%) had a higher prevalence of HTN than the men (34.6%), which is comparable with findings in other areas in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Approximately 65.6% of the participants without HTN and 34.4% of the participants with HTN did not know their normal blood pressure. Approximately 61.7% of the participants without HTN and 59.0% of the participants with HTN felt that pharmaceuticals are insufficient in curing HTN, while 60.7% and 64.7% believed that HTN can be cured. Conclusions: The global prevalence of HTN is increasing annually owing to rapid changes in lifestyle and dietary habits. Furthermore, because adherence to antihypertensives is poor in rural Jazan, the Ministry of Health and researchers advocate implementing a program to increase awareness and assess patient adherence to prescribed medication for the control of HTN

Metabolomic profiling of Drosophila using liquid chromatography Fourier transform mass spectrometry

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) interfaced with an Orbitrap Fourier transform mass spectrometer (FT-MS) was used to carry out metabolomic profiling of the classical Drosophila mutation, rosy (ry). This gene encodes a xanthine oxidase/dehydrogenase. In addition to validating the technology by detecting the same changes in xanthine, hypoxanthine, urate and allantoin that have been reported classically, completely unsuspected changes were detected in each of the tryptophan, arginine, pyrimidine and glycerophospholipid metabolism pathways. The rosy mutation thus ramifies far more widely than previously detected