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2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) has been clinically evaluated for its potential use as an anticancer drug. Although 2DG is generally thought to inhibit the glycolytic pathway through accumulation of 2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate (2DG6P), it may also interfere with various other biological processes. Here, to further understand the role of 2DG as an inhibitor of tumor progression, we assessed the metabolism of 2DG in a human endometrial cancer cell line using capillary electrophoresis-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOFMS). A total of 113 target metabolite peaks were identified and 90 metabolites of them were quantified. Furthermore, we present a new methodology which uses CE-TOFMS metabolome profiling following introduction of an artificial metabolite to evaluate tumor-specific metabolite traces. Aside from 2DG6P, we detected the presence of unique 2DG-derived deoxy metabolites in 2DG-treated cells. These metabolites may be responsible for the alteration of global metabolism in cells and act as various biological effectors.

Stress is believed to be harmful to not only mental but also physical health. However, proving a link between stress and disease is difficult. A recent study reported that an environmental enrichment reduced cancer growth via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and leptin. Here, we report that mice kept in a fragrant environment enriched with α-pinene show reduced melanoma growth. Tumor volume of mice under the α-pinene environment was about 40% smaller than that in the control mice. α-Pinene had no inhibitory effect on melanoma cell proliferation in vitro, suggesting that this effect was not a direct effect of α-pinene. These results suggest that the provision of a fragrant environment may be an important factor in the therapeutic approach to cancer.

We used capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOFMS) to characterize the metabolic profiles of the seed, pulp, stem and leaf of Illicium anisatum. CE-TOFMS detected more than 1000 polar metabolites within 40 min, of which 58 were annotated and quantified. Seed had higher levels of glycolytic metabolites than pulp, stem and leaf, while leaf had higher levels of TCA cycle and nucleoside metabolites. Among amino acid metabolites, levels of Gln, Glu, and Asp were higher in almost every organ. Levels of shikimic acid, the source compound for Tamiflu, were high in all organs, ranging from 6.84% to 28.82%. These results indicate that CETOFMS-based metabolomics offers an efficient, convenient method for comprehensive metabolite profiling, and may be a powerful tool for the screening of drug discovery.