Case Western Reserve University researchers, from the School of Medicine's Department of Nutrition, discovered two new metabolic pathways代谢途径 by which products of lipid peroxidation脂质过氧化作用 and some drugs of abuse, known as 4-hydroxyacids含氧酸, are metabolized产生代谢变化. The pathways were identified by a combination of metabolomics and mass isotopomer同位素 analysis. The findings shed new light on the mechanism of action of the drug of abuse gamma-hydroxybutyrate羟基丁酸, also known as "the date rape drug." The manuscript手稿，原稿 published in the November 27th issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry was named a "Paper of the Week." Such papers are chosen from the top one percent of all articles submitted to the prestigious享有声望的 peer-reviewed journal. This type of rare breakthrough sets the ground work for future discoveries. This work was supported by a RoadMap grant同意，承认 from the National Institutes of Health, a grant from the National Institute of Environment Health Sciences, as well as by a grant from the Cleveland Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation. The RoadMap grant funded the development of metabolomics新陈代谢学 at Case Western Reserve, as well as the acquisition of a top-of-the-line mass spectrometer分光计. This instrument allowed this and multiple other studies to be conducted. The RoadMap initiative allowed a quantum jump量子越近 in the development of metabolic research at the School of Medicine.

"Our finding will lead to studies that will increase the understanding of metabolic disturbances that occur during oxidative stress氧化应激. The latter is part of the pathology病理学 of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes糖尿病 and inflammation发炎，红肿," says Guo-Fang Zhang, Ph.D., Research Associate in the Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. "We hope that the upcoming studies will lead to the design of new treatments that minimize the effects of oxidative stress."

"Paving a Catabolic Highway," an editorial about this landmark study concluded, "Overall, this study represents an exemplary可仿效的 prototype原型 for any projects that aim to identify incomplete or unknown metabolic pathways."

"A combined effort of Case Western Reserve University and the Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation since 1990 has lead to the building of this department's research program and the conception of this groundbreaking finding," says Henri Brunengraber, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Author, Professor, and Chair of the Department of Nutrition. "We plan to expand this project in close collaboration with Gregory P. Tochtrop, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Tochtrop and his group have synthesized综合，合成 a number of carbon 13-labeled compounds which allowed the unraveling阐明，解释 of the steps of the new pathways we discovered".