Journal of Clinical Medicine Review Recent Trends in the Quantification of Biogenic Amines in Biofluids as Biomarkers of Various Disorders: A Review Alina Plenis 1,* , Ilona Ol˛edzka 1 , Piotr Kowalski 1 , Natalia Mi˛ekus 1,2 and Tomasz B ˛aczek 1 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Medical University of Gda´nsk,Hallera 107, 80-416 Gda´nsk, Poland;
[email protected] (I.O.);
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[email protected] (T.B.) 2 Department of Animal and Human Physiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Gda´nsk,Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gda´nsk,Poland * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Fax: +48-58-349-16-35 Received: 4 April 2019; Accepted: 6 May 2019; Published: 9 May 2019 Abstract: Biogenic amines (BAs) are bioactive endogenous compounds which play a significant physiological role in many cell processes like cell proliferation and differentiation, signal transduction and membrane stability. Likewise, they are important in the regulation of body temperature, the increase/decrease of blood pressure or intake of nutrition, as well as in the synthesis of nucleic acids and proteins, hormones and alkaloids. Additionally, it was confirmed that these compounds can be considered as useful biomarkers for the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of several neuroendocrine and cardiovascular disorders, including neuroendocrine tumours (NET), schizophrenia and Parkinson’s Disease. Due to the fact that BAs are chemically unstable, light-sensitive and possess a high tendency for spontaneous oxidation and decomposition at high pH values, their determination is a real challenge. Moreover, their concentrations in biological matrices are extremely low.