Advanced online mass spectrometry detection of proteins separated by capillary isoelectric focusing after sequential injection

Capillary isoelectric focusing hyphenated with mass spectrometry detection, following the sequential injection of the carrier ampholytes and the sample zone, is highly efficient for the characterization of proteins. The main advantage of the sequential injection protocol is that ampholytes, with pH ranges, which are not supposed to cover the isoelectric points of the sample components, can be used for separation. The method then allows online mass spectrometry detection of separated analytes either in the absence (substances that have left the pH gradient) or in the presence of low‐level ampholytes (substances that are migrating within the pH gradient). The appearance of the substances within, or outside the pH gradient depends on, e.g., the composition of the ampholytes (broad or narrow pH range) or on the composition of electrolyte solutions. The experiments performed in coated capillaries (with polyvinyl alcohol or with polyacrylamide) show that the amount and the injection length of the ampholytes influence the length of the pH gradient formed in the capillary.     

Quantification of the bisphosphonate alendronate using capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry with dynamic pH barrage junction focusing

A quantitative method was developed for the direct identity confirmation and quantification of alendronate using CE-MS combined with a pH-assisted focusing technique, dynamic pH barrage junction focusing. A pH-induced variation in electrophoretic mobility led to online focusing of alendronate at the sample/pH barrage boundary, significantly improving the detection sensitivity. In addition, the use of a flow-through microvial CE electrospray interface and the multiple reaction monitoring mode of MS further improved the specificity and quantification capability of this technology. This quantitative method presented a wide linear dynamic range over 8–2000 ng/mL and an LOD of 2 ng/mL. A 460-fold improvement in sensitivity was obtained when pH barrage junction focusing was applied during the CE process, in comparison to when normal CE was conducted without online sample stacking. The superior detection sensitivity over previously reported methods enables direct analysis of bisphosphonate compounds, eliminating tedious pre-column sample enrichment and derivatization. Validation of alendronate content in a commercial drug tablet further proved the reliability and power of this method. This simple method with no sample derivatization, superior sensitivity, and short run time (<8 min) is a promising alternative for accurate quantification of alendronate and other types of bisphosphonate compounds in both drug formulations and plasma samples.     

Secondary-flow-aided single-train elastic-inertial focusing in low elasticity viscoelastic fluids

Elastic-inertial focusing has attracted increasing interest in recent years due to the three-dimensional (3D) single-train focusing ability it offers. However, multi-train focusing, instead of single-train focusing, was observed in viscoelastic fluids with low elasticity as a result of the competition between inertia effect and viscoelasticity effect. To address this issue, we employed the secondary flow to facilitate single-train elastic-inertial focusing in low elasticity viscoelastic fluids. A three-section contraction-expansion channel was designed to induce the secondary flow to pinch the multiplex focusing trains into a single one exactly at the channel centerline. After demonstrating the focusing process and mechanism in our device, we systematically explored and discussed the effects of particle diameter, operational flow rate, polymer concentration, and channel dimension on particle focusing performances. Our device enables single-train focusing of particles in viscoelastic fluids with low elasticity, and offers advantages of planar single-layer structure, and sheathless, external-field free operation.     

Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel

Microfluidic particle focusing has been a vital prerequisite step in sample preparation for downstream particle separation, counting, detection, or analysis, and has attracted broad applications in biomedical and chemical areas. Besides all the active and passive focusing methods in Newtonian fluids, particle focusing in viscoelastic fluids has been attracting increasing interest because of its advantages induced by intrinsic fluid property. However, to achieve a well-defined focusing position, there is a need to extend channel lengths when focusing micrometer-sized or sub-microsized particles, which would result in the size increase of the microfluidic devices. This work investigated the sheathless viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microfluidic channel. Benefit from the zigzag structure of the channel, the channel length and the footprint of the device can be reduced without sacrificing the focusing performance. In this work, the viscoelastic focusing, including the focusing of 10 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm magnetic particles, white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and cancer cells, were all demonstrated. Moreover, magnetophoretic separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles after viscoelastic pre-focusing was shown. This focusing technique has the potential to be used in a range of biomedical applications.     

Determination of PEGylation homogeneity of polyethylene glycol-modified canine uricase

Polyethylene glycol-modified canine uricase (PEG-UHC) was prepared by modifying the ε-amino group of lysine residues on the canine uricase (UHC) protein to near-saturation with 5 kDa monomethoxyl-polyethylene glycol succinimide (mPEG-SPA-5k). In order to accurately determine the PEGylation uniformity of PEG-UHC, CZE, 3–8% gradient gel SDS-PAGE, and imaging CIEF (iCIEF) analyses were compared. CZE could not effectively separate PEG-UHC proteins with different degrees of modification, 3–8% gradient gel SDS-PAGE could separate PEG-UHC into seven gel bands; however, most of the gel bands were smeared or blurred, and the separation of PEG-UHC samples by iCIEF was significantly better than that by 3–8% gradient gel SDS-PAGE. Under denatured conditions, iCIEF separated 12 pI peaks, and could also accurately quantify the relative monomer PEG-UHC content. More than 85% of the total monomeric PEG-UHC was conjugated with 7–12 PEG molecules; of this 85%, approximately 40% was conjugated with 9–10 PEG molecules. These results demonstrated that iCIEF exhibits good potential for determining the PEGylation homogeneity of PEGylated protein drugs.     

超声全矩阵数据联合稀疏重构的多测量向量模型应用

针对单测量向量模型(Single Measurement Vector,SMV)等传统压缩感知方法处理超声全矩阵数据时,存在重构精度低和重构耗时长等问题,本文研究了多测量向量模型(Multiple Measurement Vectors,MMV)应用的可行性。针对铝合金试块中不同深度的φ2 mm横通孔,分别使用MMV模型中的多测量稀疏贝叶斯(Multiple Sparse Bayesian Learning,MSBL)算法和SMV模型中的稀疏贝叶斯(Sparse Bayesian Learning,SBL)算法进行超声全矩阵数据重构,并实施全聚焦成像。随后,引入归一化均方误差和阵列性能因子评价图像和信号的重构效果。实验结果表明,SBL算法在25%采样率时的归一化均方误差为1.9%,而MSBL算法仅需15%采样率即可达到相似效果且耗时更少。     

Numerical study of dielectrophoresis-modified inertial migration for overlapping sized cell separation

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been proven to have significant prognostic, diagnostic, and clinical values in early-stage cancer detection and treatment. The efficient separation of CTCs from peripheral blood can ensure intact and viable CTCs and can, thus, give proper genetic characterization and drug innovation. In this study, continuous and high-throughput separation of MDA-231 CTCs from overlapping sized white blood cells (WBCs) is achieved by modifying inertial cell focusing with dielectrophoresis (DEP) in a single-stage microfluidic platform by numeric simulation. The DEP is enabled by embedding interdigitated electrodes with alternating field control on a serpentine microchannel to avoid creating two-stage separation. Rather than using the electrokinetic migration of cells which slows down the throughput, the system leverages the inertial microfluidic flow to achieve high-speed continuous separation. The cell migration and cell positioning characteristics are quantified through coupled physics analyses to evaluate the effects of the applied voltages and Reynolds numbers (Re) on the separation performance. The results indicate that the introduction of DEP successfully migrates WBCs away from CTCs and that separation of MDA-231 CTCs from similar sized WBCs at a high Re of 100 can be achieved with a low voltage of magnitude 4 ×10⁶ V/m. Additionally, the viability of MDA-231 CTCs is expected to be sustained after separation due to the short-term DEP exposure. The developed technique could be exploited to design active microchips for high-throughput separation of mixed cell beads despite their significant size overlap, using DEP-modified inertial focusing controlled simply by adjusting the applied external field.     

移动简谐荷载作用下桥梁响应的高效计算

在计算移动荷载过桥问题中广泛使用的Newmark方法必须在每一时间步内限制荷载的大小和作用位置都不能改变。精细积分法虽然允许荷载的大小在每一时间步长内发生变化,但是仍假定其作用位置是不变的,未能采取措施以描述荷载沿着桥面的连续移动性。本文提出三种精细积分格式,在每一时间步内不但允许移动荷载的大小按简谐规律连续变化,而且模拟了简谐荷载在空间域的连续移动。通过与Newmark方法和简单问题的解析解进行数值比较,表明用本文提出的方法可以用较粗的结构单元和较大的时间步长而获得很高的计算精度。在精度相同的前提下,计算效率比Newmark方法可提高1~2个数量级。     

单点子域积分与差分

通过稳定性分析、显式与隐式积分，表明了单点子域积分相对于差分法的优越性．     

A combined parametric quadratic programming and precise integration method based dynamic analysis of elastic-plastic hardening/softening problems

The objective of the paper is to develop a new algorithm for numerical solution of dynamic elastic-plastic strain hardening/softening problems. The gradient dependent model is adopted in the numerical model to overcome the result mesh-sensitivity problem in the dynamic strain softening or strain localization analysis. The equations for the dynamic elastic-plastic problems are derived in terms of the parametric variational principle, which is valid for associated, non-associated and strain softening plastic constitutive models in the finite element analysis. The precise integration method, which has been widely used for discretization in time domain of the linear problems, is introduced for the solution of dynamic nonlinear equations. The new algorithm proposed is based on the combination of the parametric quadratic programming method and the precise integration method and has all the advantages in both of the algorithms. Results of numerical examples demonstrate not only the validity, but also the advantages of the algorithm proposed for the numerical solution of nonlinear dynamic problems. The project supported by the National Key Basic Research Special Foundation (G1999032805), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19872016, 50178016, 19832010) and the Foundation for University Key Teacher by the Ministry of Education of China