An in vitro method for the early detection of a potential inflammation, in particular a rejection of a transplant is disclosed, wherein the level of kynurenine in saliva is determined. The test method can be easily performed and allows the early detection of potential problems.

The present invention is directed to a method of quantifying intracellular metabolite effluxes in permeabilized cancer cells for selecting cancer patients responsive for a cancer treatment, the method comprising the steps of: a) providing a sample of cancer cells taken from a patient; b) permeabilizing said cancer cells; c) incubating said permeabilized cancer cells in a reaction medium for a period of time allowing biological activity of intracellular organelles and accumulation of metabolites produced by said activity into the reaction medium in the presence of a substrate or substrates relating to a metabolite efflux or effluxes of interest, wherein said substrates used are at least glutamine and pyruvate; d) determining the quantity of metabolites relating to said metabolite efflux or effluxes of interest accumulated in the reaction medium during step c); and e) comparing the amounts of metabolites determined in step d) to equal measurements performed on control samples of the same tissue type and assessing the aggressiveness of the cancer cells or the treatment response of the cancer cells to a drug affecting a metabolic pathway or pathways relating to said metabolite efflux or effluxes of interest.

A method of multiplexing Hcy and/or Cys in a first-tier screening assay includes: contacting a blood sample with a reducing agent optionally in the presence of a solvent to convert at least one of a Hcy dimer, a Hcy-protein complex, a Cys dimer different from the homocysteine dimer, or a Cys-protein complex in the blood sample to a Hcy and/or Cys monomer thereby forming a monomer sample; reacting the Hcy and/or Cys monomer in the monomer sample with a thiol derivatizing agent to form a thiol derivatized sample comprising a thiol derivatized Hcy and/or Cys monomer; and optionally converting a carboxylic acid or a carboxylate group in the thiol derivatized Hcy and/or Cys monomer to an ester, forming a thiol-and-ester derivatized sample comprising a thiol-and-ester derivatized Hcy and/or Cys monomer. The method can be used to determine a level of tHcy, a level of tCys, and/or a level of CysT in a blood sample, and screen for CBS deficiency, HCU, or hyperhomocysteinemia.

The present invention relates to a process for the non-destructive determination of gender, developmental stage and/or viability of an avian embryo in an egg, comprising (a) detecting at least a first developmental marker compound selected from sugars and/or amino acids, precursors and metabolites thereof in an egg at a time period of from the beginning of the incubation of the egg until the hatching; (b) measuring the amount of the at least first detected developmental marker compound, and (c) comparing the amount to a base line established for male and female, developmental stage of the embryo, and/or alive and deceased or non-developed embryo, to determine whether the embryo is viable, male and/or female, and/or the developmental stage of the embryo.