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Rosemary diterpenes have demonstrated diverse biological activities, such as anti-cancer, antiinflammatory, as well as other beneficial effects against neurological and metabolic disorders. In particular, carnosic acid (CA), carnosol (CS) and rosmanol (RS) diterpenes have shown interesting results on anti-cancer activity. However, little is known about the toxic effects of rosemary diterpenes at the concentrations needed to exert their antiproliferative effect on cancer cells. In our study, CA, CS and RS exhibited a concentration-dependent effect on cell viability of two human colon cancer cell lines (HT-29 and HCT116) after 24 h exposure. HT-29 cell line was more resistant to the inhibitory effect of the three diterpenes than HCT116 cell line. Among the three diterpenes, RS exerted the strongest effect in both cell lines. To investigate the hepatotoxicity of CA, CS and RS, undifferentiated and differentiated HepaRG cells were exposed to increasing concentrations of the diterpenes (from 10 to 100 μM). Differentiated cells were found to be more resistant to the toxic activity of the three diterpenes than undifferentiated HepaRG, probably related to a higher detoxifying function of differentiated HepaRG cells compared with the undifferentiated cells. The metabolic profiles of differentiated HepaRG cells in response to CA, CS and RS were examined to determine biochemical alterations and deepen the study of the effects of rosemary phenolic diterpenes at molecular level. A multiplatform metabolomics study based on liquid- and gas-chromatography hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry revealed that rosemary diterpenes exerted different effects when HepaRG cells were treated with the same concentration of each diterpene. RS revealed a greater metabolome alteration followed by CS and CA, in agreement with their observed cytotoxicity. Metabolomics provided valuable information about early events in the metabolic profiles after the treatment with the investigated diterpenes from rosemary., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The antiproliferative activity of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) has been widely studied in different in vitro and in vivo models, which demonstrate that rosemary extracts inhibit the cellular proliferation due to its ability to interact with a wide spectrum of molecular targets. However, a comprehensive proteomics study in vivo has not been carried out yet. In the present work, the effects of rosemary extract on xenograft tumor growth has been studied and, for the first time, a shotgun proteomic analysis based on nano-LC-MS/MS together with stable isotope dimethyl labeling (DML) has been applied to investigate the global protein changes in vivo. Our results show that the daily administration of a polyphenol-enriched rosemary extract reduces the progression of colorectal cancer in vivo with the subsequent deregulation of 74 proteins. The bioinformatic analysis of these proteins indicates that the rosemary extract mainly alters the RNA Post-Transcriptional Modification, the Protein Synthesis and the Amino Acid Metabolism functions and suggests the inactivation of the oncogene MYC. These results demonstrate the high utility of the proposed analytical methodology to determine, simultaneously, the expression levels of a large number of protein biomarkers and to generate new hypothesis about the molecular mechanisms of this extract in vivo., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In the present work, the phlorotannin composition of different Sargassum muticum samples collected at different locations along the North Atlantic coasts as well as the bioactivities related to these components were investigated. After pressurized liquid extraction, the samples collected at the extreme locations of a latitudinal gradient from Portugal and Norway, were found to be the richest on total phenols and, particularly, on phlorotannins, containing up to 148.97 and 5.12mg phloroglucinol equivalents g(-1), respectively. The extracts obtained from these locations were further purified and chemically characterized using a modified HILIC×RP-DAD-MS/MS method. The application of this methodology allowed the tentative identification of a great variability of phlorotannins with different degrees of polymerization (from 3 to 11) and structures, determined for the first time in S. muticum. The most-abundant phlorotannins on these samples were fuhalols, hydroxyfuhalols and phlorethols, showing also particularities and important differences depending on the geographical location. Afterwards, the antiproliferative activity of these extracts against HT-29 adenocarcinoma colon cancer cells was studied. Results revealed that the richest S. muticum samples in terms of total phlorotannins, i.e., those from Norway, presented the highest activity, showing a good cytotoxic potential at concentrations in the medium micromolar range., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lactococcus garvieae is a Gram-positive, catalase negative coccus arranged in pairs or short chains, well-known as a fish pathogen. We report a case of Infective Endocarditis (IE) by L. garvieae in a native valve from a 68-year-old male with unknown history of contact with raw fish and an extensive history of heart disease. This case highlights the reliability of MALDI-TOF MS compared to conventional methods in the identification of rare microorganisms like this.

In the current post-genomic era, Foodomics has been defined as a discipline that studies food and nutrition through the application of advanced omics approaches. Foodomics involves the use of genomics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, proteomics, peptidomics, and/or metabolomics to investigate food quality, safety, traceability and bioactivity. In this context, capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) has been applied mainly in food proteomics, peptidomics and metabolomics. The aim of this review work is to present an overview of the most recent developments and applications of CE-MS as analytical platform for Foodomics, covering the relevant works published from 2008 to 2012. The review provides also information about the integration of several omics approaches in the new Foodomics field., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A global methodology, called Foodomics, which allows carrying out a comprehensive evaluation of the health benefits of food ingredients is presented in this work. The new methodology is based on the combination of several analytical platforms and data processing for Transcriptomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics studies, allowing the determination of changes induced by food ingredients at molecular level. Both, the whole methodological development and its potential are presented through the investigation of a case study following a hypothesis-free strategy. Namely, the chemopreventive effect of polyphenols from rosemary was examined on the total gene, protein and metabolite expression in human HT29 colon cancer cells. Conclusions on the bioactivity of polyphenols against colon cancer cells based on the results from each single platform (Transcriptomics, Proteomics or Metabolomics) are compared with the conclusions based on the integration of the whole results from the three platforms, corroborating the interest of using a global integrative strategy as Foodomics. To our knowledge, although many papers and reviews have been published on this topic, this is the first time that Transcriptomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics platforms are put together to study the health benefits from dietary ingredients against colon cancer cells at gene, protein and metabolite level. Advantages, drawbacks and current challenges of this global analytical strategy are discussed in this work. The results from our study provide new insights on the biological mechanisms involved in the cancer risk reduction properties of dietary constituents., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a novel screening methodology based on the combined use of multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and capillary gel electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence (CGE-LIF) is developed for the fast and sensitive detection of genetically modified yeasts in wine. As model, a recombinant EKD-13 Saccaromyces cerevisiae strain was selected and different wines were prepared using either recombinant or conventional yeasts. Special emphasis is put on the yeast DNA extraction step, exploring different commercial and non-commercial methods, in order to overcome the important difficulty of obtaining amplifiable DNA from wine samples. To unequivocally detect the transgenic yeast, two specific segments of the transgenic construction were amplified. In addition, a third primer pair was used as amplification control to confirm the quality of the yeast DNA obtained from the extraction step. CGE-LIF provides high sensitivity, good analysis speed and impressive resolution of DNA fragments, making this technique very convenient to optimize multiplex PCR parameters and to analyze the amplified DNA fragments. Thus, the CGE-LIF method provided %RSD values for DNA migration times lower than 0.82% (n=10) with the same capillary and lower than 1.92% (n=15) with three different capillaries, allowing the adequate size determination of the PCR products with an error lower than 4% compared to the theoretically expected. The whole method developed in this work requires less than one working day and grants the sensitive detection of transgenic yeasts in wine samples., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC-ESI-MS (ion trap)) method is developed, for the first time, for profiling transgenic and non-transgenic maize with the aim of cultivar characterization. To optimize chromatographic conditions the following parameters were studied: column, gradient, and ion-pairing reagent. Moreover, the influence in the MS signal of the variation of the capillary voltage and the accumulated ions in the trap was also studied. The developed method was applied to the profiling of different protein fractions (albumin, globulin, prolamin, and glutelin) isolated from Bt transgenic and non-transgenic maize cultivars. Moreover, different maize samples, namely, maize cultivars from different geographical origins (USA, Canada, France, and Spain), transgenic maize samples with certified GMO content, and three transgenic Bt maize cultivars with their isogenic non-transgenic counterparts (Aristis Bt vs. Aristis, PR33P67 vs. PR33P66, and DKC6575 vs. Tietar) were profiled by the developed method. Mass spectra obtained for certain peaks in the maize cultivars studied resulted, in some occasions, useful for cultivar characterization and differentiation. The comparison of UV and MS profiles and mass spectra corresponding to the protein fractions with those of the whole seeds enabled the assignment of some peaks.

In this work, the potential of combining capillary electrophoresis-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (CE-TOF-MS) and Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) for metabolomics of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is demonstrated. Thus, six different varieties of maize, three of them transgenic (PR33P66 Bt, Tietar Bt and Aristis Bt) and their corresponding isogenic lines (PR33P66, Tietar and Aristis) grown under the same field conditions, were analyzed. Based on the ultrahigh resolution and remarkable mass accuracy provided by the 12-T FT-ICR-MS it was possible to directly analyze a good number of metabolites whose identity could be proposed based on their specific isotopic pattern. For identification of metabolite isomers, CE-TOF-MS was also used combining the information on nominal mass with electrophoretic mobility corroborating in that way the identity of several new biomarkers. Furthermore, PLE extractions were evaluated in order to establish selective extraction as an additional criterion to obtain useful information in maize metabolomics. Differences in the metabolite levels were found between the three transgenic maize varieties compared with their wild isogenic lines in some specific metabolic pathways. To our knowledge, this is the first time that an approach as the one presented in this work (pressurized liquid extraction+FT-ICR-MS+CE-TOF-MS) is shown for a metabolomic study.

In this work, capillary electrophoresis-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOF-MS) is proposed to identify and quantify the main metabolites found in transgenic soybean and its corresponding non-transgenic parental line both grown under identical conditions. The procedure includes optimization of metabolites extraction, separation by CE, on-line electrospray-TOF-MS analysis and data evaluation. A large number of extraction procedures and background electrolytes are tested in order to obtain a highly reproducible and sensitive analytical methodology. Using this approach, a large number of metabolites were tentatively identified based on the high mass accuracy provided by TOF-MS analyzer, together with the isotopic pattern and expected electrophoretic mobility of these compounds. In general, the same metabolites and in similar amounts were found in the conventional and transgenic variety. However, significant differences were also observed in some specific cases when the conventional variety was compared with its corresponding transgenic line. The selection of these metabolites as possible biomarkers of transgenic soybean is discussed, although a larger number of samples need to be analyzed in order to validate this point. It is concluded that metabolomic procedures based on CE-MS can open new perspectives in the study of transgenic foods in order to corroborate (or not) the equivalence with their conventional counterparts.

The characterization of influenza vaccine composition has been approached through a novel methodology suitable for routine analysis. It is based on a two-stage process involving an initial sample processing step followed by analysis by reversed-phase HPLC with UV detection. The sample processing involves an initial concentration step carried out in the presence of a combination of detergents and organic solvents to enhance solubilization and ultimately to provide adequate detection. Conditions that provided fast, reproducible and selective separations of vaccine constituents were investigated by reversed-phase HPLC. The use of non-porous silica stationary phases was found to minimize carry-over and non-specific adsorption observed with conventional columns. An evaluation of separation parameters, including mobile phase composition and column temperature, allowed optimization of the selectivity of the method. The optimized method was suitable for the characterization of processed monovalent preparations (containing influenza virus constituents from a single strain). In addition, it allowed the simultaneous detection of the three influenza subtypes in trivalent vaccines in a single analysis. Several influenza constituents were detected including nucleoprotein, the highly hydrophobic matrix protein and the primary surface antigen, haemagglutinin (HA).