Pee and sleep? Scientists have revealed all the substances that can be detected in urine

The chemical composition of urine is of particular interest to doctors, nutritionists and environmental scientists because it reveals important information not only about a person's health, but also about what he eats, what he drinks, what medicines he takes and what pollutants he may be exposed to in the environment

Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada announced that they were able to identify the chemical composition of human urine. The study, which lasted over seven years by a team of about 20 researchers, revealed that over 3,000 chemical substances or "metabolites" can be detected in urine. This research may have significant implications in the fields of medicine, nutrition, as well as drug testing and environmental testing.
"Urine is an extremely complex biological fluid. We had no idea that so many different compounds come down with the water in the toilet," says David Wishart, the project's senior scientist.

Members of the research team used advanced chemical analysis techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography, in order to consistently and quantitatively identify hundreds of compounds from a wide variety of urine samples.

To expand the research results they also used data mining techniques that reviewed over 100 years of scientific literature about human urine. This chemical database - which includes names and nicknames of chemical substances, chemical composition, descriptions, structures, concentrations and diseases related to thousands of metabolites has been stored in a free database known as the Urine Metabolome Database, or UMDB. The UMDB can now be used as a reference source for drug and drug chemical analysis, clinical information and environmental analysis. The UMDB is maintained by The Metabolomics Innovation Center in Canada.

The chemical composition of urine is of particular interest to doctors, nutritionists and environmental scientists because it reveals important information not only about a person's health, but also about what he eats, what he drinks, what medicines he takes and what pollutants he may be exposed to in the environment. The analysis of urine for medical purposes began more than 3,000 years ago. In fact, until the end of the 17th century, urine analysis using color, taste and smell (called uroscopy) was one of the main methods used by doctors for early diagnosis of the disease. Even today, millions of chemistry-based urine tests are performed every day to detect metabolic disorders in newborns, to diagnose diabetes, kidney function, bladder infections, and to detect drug abuse.

"Medical textbooks only list 50 to 100 chemicals in urine, and the most common clinical urine tests measure only six to seven compounds," Wishart said. "We expanded the list of known chemicals in urine 30 times and improved the technology, so that we can identify hundreds of chemicals in urine at a time. This method could change the rules of the game in medical examinations." Wishart said. "This research is particularly significant, because it will enable a new generation of quick, cheap and painless medical tests that can be performed through a urine test instead of taking blood or tissue biopsies from the subjects. Wishart notes the new diagnostic tests based on urine to detect colon cancer, and in the development stages of kits to detect prostate cancer, celiac disease, transplant rejection, colitis, pneumonia, ulcers and more, which are about to enter the market, partly thanks to this research.

The article appeared last Thursday in the journal PLoS ONE. The term metabolome (derived from the words "metabolism" and "genome") is defined as a collection of metabolites or chemicals found in a particular organism or a complete tissue. The human urine study is part of a series of studies conducted by researchers from the University of Alberta with the aim of systematically characterizing the entire human metabolism. In 2008 members of the same team described the chemical composition of human spinal fluid and in 2009 they determined the chemical composition of human blood. "This is certainly not the last word on the chemical composition of urine," Wishart said. "As new techniques are developed and more sensitive devices are created, I am sure that it will be possible to identify hundreds more compounds in urine. In fact, new compounds are added to UMDB almost every day.

"While the Human Genome Project certainly continues to capture most of the world's attention, I believe that these studies of the human metabolism already have a much more significant and immediate impact on human health." Wishart says.