One-Carbon Metabolic Flux Analysis

One-Carbon Metabolic Flux Analysis

The one-carbon metabolic pathway, which includes a series of interlinking metabolic pathways such as the folate cycle and methionine cycle pathway, is a complex cyclic metabolic network of chemical reactions based on folate compounds involved in nucleotide synthesis, lipid metabolism and maintenance of cellular redox homeostasis. Based on highly stable, reproducible and sensitive separation, characterization, identification and quantification systems, Creative Proteomics is able to provide reliable, rapid and cost-effective one-carbon MFA services.

Overview of one-carbon metabolism

One-carbon units are organic groups containing only one carbon atom primarily produced during the catabolism of amino acids, and is an important substrate for nucleotide synthesis and methylation reactions. Since these groups cannot be present in the free form in the organism, they are usually carried by their carrier tetrahydrofolate (THF, a reduced form of dietary folic acid) to participate in metabolic reactions, collectively referred to as one-carbon metabolism. One-carbon metabolism is composed of two parts: the folic acid cycle and the methionine cycle, of which serine is the main source of one-carbon units. Serine/glycine biosynthesis and one-carbon metabolism are essential for maintaining cancer cell survival and rapid proliferation.

Fig1. An overview of one-carbon metabolism and the established/future therapeutics that target this pathway. (Newman, Alice C., and Oliver DK Maddocks. 2017)

One-carbon metabolic flux analysis service at Creative Proteomics

Creative Proteomics is proud to offer one-carbon MFA service. Our one-carbon MFA service can provide the commonly used one-carbon metabolic tracers ¹³C₆ Glucose and ¹³C Serine, as well as other tracers depending on the client's different experimental needs. Specifically, our service includes experimental design, labeling experiments, isotopic labeling, one-carbon metabolic flux estimation, and metabolic flux data analysis.

Analytical list of substances related to one-carbon metabolism

We have established a MFA platform primarily based on mass spectrometry (MS) detection, which enables quantitative and qualitative analysis of multiple classes of substances involved in one-carbon metabolism.

Accepted samples

Cells, tissues, microbial organisms, culture media and fermentation broth

Instrument platform

Orbitrap LC-MS, UHPLC-QQQ-MS, and GC-Q-MS

Report delivery

• Experimental steps
• Relevant MS parameters
• Quantitative or quantitative information of the identified substances
• Mass spectral images
• Raw data
• Metabolic flux result and interpretation, including variance analysis, cluster analysis, correlation analysis, ROC analysis, network analysis, and other custom analysis

Creative Proteomics is a leading service provider in MFA. Our MFA platform can be used to identify control structures and metabolic pathway regulatory networks that are broadly applicable to any metabolic system that can be described by a kinetic model. We will develop a detailed service agreement according to your program and needs. For more experimental technology services, please browse the rest of our website or contact us.

References

1. Lee, Won Dong, et al. "Tumor reliance on cytosolic versus mitochondrial one-carbon flux depends on folate availability." Cell Metabolism 33.1 (2021): 190-198.
2. Newman, Alice C., and Oliver DK Maddocks. "One-carbon metabolism in cancer." British journal of cancer 116.12 (2017): 1499-1504.