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Growing evidence shows that the lung is an organ prone to injury by diabetes mellitus. However, the molecular mechanisms of these pulmonary complications have not yet been characterized comprehensively. To systematically study the effects of insulin deficiency and hyperglycaemia on the lung, we combined proteomics and lipidomics with quantitative histomorphological analyses to compare lung tissue samples from a clinically relevant pig model for mutant INS gene-induced diabetes of youth (MIDY) with samples from wild-type littermate controls. Among others, the level of pulmonary surfactant-associated protein A (SFTPA1), a biomarker of lung injury, was moderately elevated. Furthermore, key proteins related to humoral immune response and extracellular matrix organization were significantly altered in abundance. Importantly, a lipoxygenase pathway was dysregulated as indicated by 2.5-fold reduction of polyunsaturated fatty acid lipoxygenase ALOX15 levels, associated with corresponding changes in the levels of lipids influenced by this enzyme. Our multi-omics study points to an involvement of reduced ALOX15 levels and an associated lack of eicosanoid switching as mechanisms contributing to a proinflammatory milieu in the lungs of subjects with diabetes mellitus.

Modern biomarker and translational research as well as personalized health care studies rely heavily on powerful omics’ technologies, including metabolomics and lipidomics. However, to translate metabolomics and lipidomics discoveries into a high-throughput clinical setting, standardization is of utmost importance. Here, we compared and benchmarked a quantitative lipidomics platform. The employed Lipidyzer platform is based on lipid class separation by means of differential mobility spectrometry with subsequent multiple reaction monitoring. Quantitation is achieved by the use of 54 deuterated internal standards and an automated informatics approach. We investigated the platform performance across nine laboratories using NIST SRM 1950–Metabolites in Frozen Human Plasma, and three NIST Candidate Reference Materials 8231–Frozen Human Plasma Suite for Metabolomics (high triglyceride, diabetic, and African-American plasma). In addition, we comparatively analyzed 59 plasma samples from individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia from a clinical cohort study. We provide evidence that the more practical methyl-tert-butyl ether extraction outperforms the classic Bligh and Dyer approach and compare our results with two previously published ring trials. In summary, we present standardized lipidomics protocols, allowing for the highly reproducible analysis of several hundred human plasma lipids, and present detailed molecular information for potentially disease relevant and ethnicity-related materials.

Prolonged storage of biospecimen can lead to artificially altered metabolite concentrations and thus bias data analysis in metabolomics experiments. To elucidate the potential impact of long-term storage on the metabolite profile, a pooled human plasma sample was aliquoted and stored at −80 °C. During a time period of five years, 1012 of the aliquots were measured with the Biocrates AbsoluteIDQp180 targeted-metabolomics assay at 193 time points. Modeling the concentration courses over time revealed that 55 out of 111 metabolites remained stable. The statistically significantly changed metabolites showed on average an increase or decrease of +13.7% or −14.5%, respectively. In detail, increased concentration levels were observed for amino acids (mean: + 15.4%), the sum of hexoses (+7.9%), butyrylcarnitine (+9.4%), and some phospholipids mostly with chain lengths exceeding 40 carbon atoms (mean: +18.0%). Lipids tended to exhibit decreased concentration levels with the following mean concentration changes: acylcarnitines, −12.1%; lysophosphatidylcholines, −15.1%; diacyl-phosphatidylcholines, −17.0%; acyl-alkyl-phosphatidylcholines, −13.3%; sphingomyelins, −14.8%. We conclude that storage of plasma samples at −80 °C for up to five years can lead to altered concentration levels of amino acids, acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids, sphingomyelins, and the sum of hexoses. These alterations must be considered when analyzing metabolomics data from long-term epidemiological studies.

The presentation and underlying pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is complex and heterogeneous. Recent studies attempted to stratify T2D into distinct subgroups using data-driven approaches, but their clinical utility may be limited if categorical representations of complex phenotypes are suboptimal.

Four new 19-residue peptaibols, named tulasporins A–D (1–4), were isolated from the semi-solid cultures of Sepedonium tulasneanum. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive ESI-HRMSnfragmentation studies as well as 1H NMR spectroscopic analyses. Interestingly, the structures of tulasporins A–D (1–4) resemble those of chrysospermins isolated earlier from cultures of S. chrysospermum. Previously, it was hypothesized that the peptaibol production by Sepedoniumspecies correlates with the morphology of the aleurioconidia, as exclusively round-shaped aleurioconidia forming species produced peptaibols. Since the investigated Sepedonium tulasneanumproduces oval aleurioconidia, this study can be considered as the first report of peptaibols from a Sepedoniumstrain with oval-shaped aleurioconidia. Thus, it could be demonstrated that both round as well as oval aleurioconidia forming Sepedoniumspecies are able to produce peptaibols. Tulasporins A-D (1–4), when tested against phytopathogenic fungi, exhibited good growth inhibitory activity against both Botrytis cinereaand Phytophthora infestans, while they were devoid of significant activity against Septoria tritici.

A new isoquinoline alkaloid, ampullosine (3-methyl-isoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid, 1), was isolated from Sepedonium ampullosporumand characterized by spectroscopic analysis and chemical reactions. This compound is responsible for the deep yellow color of the culture fluid of this species. Moreover, the known compounds sepedonin (2) and anhydrosepedonin (3) were detected. Twelve strains belonging to eight species of Sepedoniumhave been screened for these three metabolites by LC/ESI-SRM (selected reaction monitoring). Ampullosine (1) could be detected in almost all species in Sepedonium, but not in the phylogenetically more distant species S. brunneumand S. tulasneanum.Anhydrosepedonin (3) showed antifungal activity against the phytopathogenic fungus Cladosporium cucumerinum.