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The diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia do not accurately reflect the pathophysiological characteristics of patients with preeclampsia. Conventional biomarkers and diagnostic approaches have proven insufficient to fully comprehend the intricacies of preeclampsia. This study aimed to screen differentially abundant metabolites as candidate biomarkers for preeclampsia. A propensity score matching method was used to perform a 1:1 match between preeclampsia patients (n = 70) and healthy control individuals (n = 70). Based on univariate and multivariate statistical analysis methods, the different characteristic metabolites were screened and identified. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis was subsequently used to further screen for differentially abundant metabolites. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the metabolites. A total of 1,630 metabolites were identified and quantified in maternal serum samples. Fifty-three metabolites were significantly increased, and two were significantly decreased in preeclampsia patients. The area under the curve (AUC) of the model composed of isobutyryl-L-carnitine and acetyl-leucine was 0.878, and the sensitivity and specificity in detecting preeclampsia were 81.4% and 87.1%, respectively. There are significant differences in metabolism between preeclampsia patients and healthy pregnant women, and a range of novel biomarkers have been identified. These findings lay the foundation for the use of metabolomic biomarkers for the diagnosis of preeclampsia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress in high-throughput metabolic profiling provides unprecedented opportunities to obtain insights into the effects of drugs on human metabolism. The Biobanking BioMolecular Research Infrastructure of the Netherlands has constructed an atlas of drug-metabolite associations for 87 commonly prescribed drugs and 150 clinically relevant plasma-based metabolites assessed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance. The atlas includes a meta-analysis of ten cohorts (18,873 persons) and uncovers 1,071 drug-metabolite associations after evaluation of confounders including co-treatment. We show that the effect estimates of statins on metabolites from the cross-sectional study are comparable to those from intervention and genetic observational studies. Further data integration links proton pump inhibitors to circulating metabolites, liver function, hepatic steatosis and the gut microbiome. Our atlas provides a tool for targeted experimental pharmaceutical research and clinical trials to improve drug efficacy, safety and repurposing. We provide a web-based resource for visualization of the atlas ((http://bbmri.researchlumc.nl/atlas/)). Comprising data from over 18,000 people, a new atlas of drug-metabolite associations for 87 commonly prescribed drugs and 150 metabolites assessed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance provides a web-based tool to aid research on drug efficacy, safety and repurposing., Author(s): Jun Liu [sup.1] [sup.2] , Lies Lahousse [sup.1] [sup.3] , Michel G. Nivard [sup.4] [sup.5] , Mariska Bot [sup.4] [sup.5] , Lianmin Chen [sup.6] [sup.7] , Jan Bert van [...]

Piezoelectric sensors and energy harvesters have received considerable interest due to their self‐powered capability and potential applications in various electronic devices. However, it is still a challenge to fabricate stretchable piezoelectric devices because piezoelectrics mainly consists of stiff crystalline structures. Here, extremely stretchable and tough piezoelectric gels are reported, which are prepared simply by swelling poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)‐based poly(urethane‐urea) (PUU) gels with aqueous solution of molecular ferroelectrics. The hydrogen interactions between the PEG segments in the gels and the molecular ferroelectrics (dabcoHReO4, DH) enable well dispersion and crystallization of DH in the PEG segments. The resulted PUU/DH composite piezoelectric gels exhibit unique tensile mechanical properties, including superior strain (>1000%), high breaking strength (>10 MPa), modulus (>2 MPa), and toughness (>57 MJ cm−3). The extremely stretchable and tough piezoelectric gels show excellent piezoelectric properties (d33 ≈ 62 pC N−1 for films with a 10 wt% of DH and light transparency (>90%), and can quantitatively detect different mechanical deformations. Additionally, the energy generators can harvest mechanical energy with a power density of 1.7 µW cm−2. This work is expected to motivate new design principles for fabricating piezoelectric materials with excellent mechanical and piezoelectric properties for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]