The present disclosure relates to a biosensor capable of measuring the total concentration of one or a plurality of ammonia or ammonium ions with the use of indophenol reagents in the presence of an ionomer. In some embodiments, the biosensor comprises a perflurinated membrane that comprises an ionomer in contact with an alkali buffer in a vessel configured to receive a sample, such as whole blood. The disclosure also relates to a method of detecting or quantifying the ammonia or ammonium ion concentration in whole blood in a point of care bio sensor without reliance on gas chromatography or any measurement that takes more than about twenty minutes.

Disclosed are processes for the production of composition comprising one or more fructose amino acids, said process comprising the steps of: (a) providing plant material derived from a botanical source selected from plants of the families Solanaceae, Compositae, (Asteraceae), Guttiferae, Umbelliferae, Papaveraceae, Vitidaceae or Acanthaceae; (b) extracting one or more fructose amino acid(s) from said plant material; and optionally (c) detecting the presence and/or measuring the amount of said fructose amino acid(s) in the extract of step (b).

Methods for determining renal function in an animal subject, the method including measuring the concentration of ?-ammoisobutyric acid (?-amino isobutyrate) (BAIB) in patients samples and determining the presence, likelihood, or progression of kidney disease as a result of structural damage, or mortality associated with kidney disease. The methods also include measuring the concentration of BAIB in combination is symmetrical dimethyl arginine (SDMA) and determining kidney disease based upon the concentrations of BAIB and SDMA in the samples. Anti-BAIB antibodies, BAIB-conjugates, and assay methods using the antibodies and conjugates are also disclosed.

An external standard solution for use in the analysis of amino acid in plasma, containing, (1) at least one amino acid selected from the following components A, at a concentration of 0.0007 M to 0.49 M, and (2) (i) at least one amino acid selected from the following components B, at a concentration of 0.2 to 0.9 times of the lowest-concentration amino acid among the amino acids selected from components A, (ii) at least one amino acid selected from the following components C, at a concentration of 0.1 to 0.4 times of the lowest-concentration amino acid among amino acids selected from the components A, or (iii) at least one amino acid selected from the following components D, at a concentration of 0.05 to 0.2 times of the lowest-concentration amino acid among amino acids selected from the components A; [Components A] valine, glycine, alanine and glutamine [Components B] serine, proline, threonine, taurine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, histidine, phenylalanine and tyrosine [Components C] asparagine, ornithine, arginine and tryptophan [Components D] glutamic acid, methionine, citrulline and cystine.

Disclosed are processes for the production of composition comprising one or more fructose amino acids, said process comprising the steps of: (a) providing plant material derived from a botanical source selected from plants of the families Solanaceae, Compositae, (Asteraceae), Guttiferae, Umbelliferae, Papaveraceae, Vitidaceae or Acanthaceae; (b) extracting one or more fructose amino acid(s) from said plant material; and optionally (c) detecting the presence and/or measuring the amount of said fructose amino acid(s) in the extract of step (b).

A protein assay method, including: 1) dissolving 4-hydroxybenzenesulfonic acid in an ethanol, methanol, or acetonitrile aqueous solution to prepare a hydrolysis reagent, adding a protein sample and the hydrolysis reagent to a hydrolysis tube, and uniformly mixing the protein sample and the hydrolysis reagent, charging argon or nitrogen into the hydrolysis tube to remove dissolved oxygen, sealing and drying the hydrolysis tube, and hydrolyzing the protein sample; 2) cooling the hydrolysis tube to room temperature, filtering and adding a resulting hydrolysate to a volumetric flask, washing the hydrolysis tube and a filter paper, collecting and adding a resulting washing solution to the volumetric flask to a constant volume; 3) drawing a hydrolysate solution from the volumetric flask, completely drying the hydrolysate solution to yield a solid product; and 4) diluting the solid product using a diluent, and analyzing amino acids of the solid product.

A method of evaluating pancreatic cancer includes (I) an obtaining step of obtaining amino acid concentration data on a concentration value of an amino acid in blood collected from a subject to be evaluated, and (II) an evaluating step of evaluating a state of pancreatic cancer in the subject by calculating a value of a formula using the amino acid concentration data of the subject obtained at the obtaining step and the formula previously established for evaluating the state of pancreatic cancer, including an explanatory variable to be substituted with the concentration value of the amino acid. The amino acid concentration data includes the concentration values of at least two amino acids of Asn, His, Thr, Ala, Cit, Arg, Tyr, Val, Met, Lys, Trp, Gly, Pro, Orn, Ile, Leu, Phe, Ser, and Gln, and the formula includes at least two explanatory variables to be substituted with the concentration values of at least two amino acids of Asn, His, Thr, Ala, Cit, Arg, Tyr, Val, Met, Lys, Trp, Gly, Pro, Orn, Ile, Leu, Phe, Ser, and Gln.

Nutritive polypeptides are provided herein. Also provided are various other embodiments including nucleic acids encoding the polypeptides, recombinant microorganisms that make the polypeptides, vectors for expressing the polypeptides, methods of making the polypeptides using recombinant microorganisms, compositions and formulations that comprise the polypeptides, and methods of using the polypeptides, compositions and formulations.

There is provided a method for noninvasively evaluating the cell state (proliferation, multi-layering, and differentiation) of a cell sheet as a mimic tissue at the time of culturing the cell sheet. The method is characterized in that an analysis of an amino acid is conducted with the use of the culture supernatant of a cell sheet to monitor a change in the concentration of any amino acid selected from a group of 5-species of amino acids (Ile, Val, Ser, Leu, and Ala), thereby making a determination.

The present disclosure provides a method of determining a likelihood of a favorable or unfavorable outcome, such as death or a Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE) score4, in a subject having severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI). The method involves quantitative assessment of multiple metabolites shortly after the injury, such as on day 1 and/or day 4 for changes indicative of outcome. Quantitative mass spectrometry (MS) or proton (.sup.1H) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) may be used to assess multiple metabolites within a single blood sample for comparison with a control.