Extraction and characterization of adenovirus

A new methodology for the extraction and characterization of proteins from Coomassie-stained sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) has been described. The utility of this methodology was demonstrated in the characterization of adenovirus proteins. The key steps in the extraction and destaining process involve washing the excised band with a combination of solvents that include 10% acetic acid, acetonitrile, methanol, and formic acid:water:isopropanol mixture. By using this procedure, we determined adenovirus proteins with molecular weights ranging from 10,000 to 110,000 Da by MALDI-MS, obtaining a detection limit of approximately 6 pmol. Parallel experiments were successfully carried out to analyze adenovirus proteins from Cu-stained gels. It was observed that increase in laser intensity resulted in significant improvements in the quality of MALDI mass spectra for the analysis of inefficiently destained proteins from Cu-stained gels.     

Trialkyl Acyl Ammonium Halides-A New Series of Phase Transfer Catalysts

Trialkyl acyl ammonium halides have found to be superior phase transfer catalysts. They were easy to prepare and afford the reactions to be carried out at elevated temperature, owing to their stability.     

Structural analysis of biologically active peptides and recombinant proteins and their modified counterparts by mass spectrometry

The structural characterization of the Escherichia coli-expressed human interferon alpha-2b (rh-IFN alpha-2b) was carried out by employing the fast atom bombardment (FAB) and plasma desorption (PD) mapping methods. The mass spectral data of the rh-IFN alpha-2b and the trypsin-generated peptide mixture allowed rapid and facile confirmation of the cDNA-derived sequence and determination of the existing disulfide pattern in the protein molecule. The same PD/FAB mapping approach was successfully employed in the structural determination of the iodination reaction product of rh-IFN alpha-2b and the potent vasoconstrictor peptide endothelin.     

252Cf-plasma desorption and cesium-ion liquid secondary-ion mass spectrometric analysis of recombinant proteins.

The 35 keV Cs+ liquid secondary-ion mass spectrometry (LSIMS) and 252Cf-plasma desorption (PD) mass spectra of recombinant proteins in the 10-25 kDa mass range are compared. Both techniques showed comparable mass accuracy and sensitivity, and in the case of LSIMS, remarkably short analysis time. Analysis by the PD/nitrocellulose method demonstrated slightly higher sensitivity and relatively lower dependence on the salt and buffer content of the protein sample.     

Mass spectrometric mapping of disulfide bonds in recombinant human interleukin-13

Interleukin 13 (IL-13), a member of the a-helical family of cytokines, has approximately 30% primary sequence homology with IL-4 and shares a common receptor component. The biologically active rhIL-13 is monomeric and non-glycosylated, and contains two disulfide bonds as determined by comparative electrospray mass spectrometric (MS) analysis of the protein before and after reduction with dithiothreitol-dithioerythritol. A trypsin-resistant core peptide of rhIL-13 was isolated and analyzed by plasma desorption (PD) MS, identifying a disulfide-linked core peptide. Subsequent digestion of this core peptide by pepsin, followed by PDMS analysis of the resulting cystine-containing peptic fragments, provided rapid determination of the existing disulfide bonds between cysteine residues 28-56 and 44-70. This disulfide arrangement is similar to that observed for the analogous four internal cysteine residues in hIL-4. The conservation of disulfide bond arrangements between hIL-13 and hIL-4, coupled with their alpha-helical structure and sequence homologies, confirms that IL-13 and IL-4 are structural homologues. It is also consistent with their reported similarities in biological function and receptor binding kinetics.     

Synthesis of Carbacerulenin. A General Method for Syntheses of E,E-1, 4-Dienols

The synthesis of carbacerulenin (2) by way of intramolecular cyclopropanation of a undecatriene system 8 is described.     

Dielectric studies of the hexatic B-smectic A and crystal B-smectic A transitions

Static dielectric constants, ε_∥ and ε_⊥ as well as the low frequency dielectric dispersion of ε_∥ have been studied in the vicinity of the hexatic B-smectic A transition in n-hexyl-4'-pentyloxybiphenyl-4-carboxylate (65OBC) and n-butyl-4'-hexyloxybiphenyl-4-carboxylate (46OBC) and also near the crystal B-smectic A transition in n-(4-n-butyloxybenzylidene)-4-n-octylaniline (4O. 8). While the behaviour of the dielectric anisotropy is essentially similar for both transitions, the dispersion results show significant differences.     

Adaptive dissimilarity index for measuring time series proximity

The most widely used measures of time series proximity are the Euclidean distance and dynamic time warping. The latter can be derived from the distance introduced by Maurice Fréchet in 1906 to account for the proximity between curves. The major limitation of these proximity measures is that they are based on the closeness of the values regardless of the similarity w.r.t. the growth behavior of the time series. To alleviate this drawback we propose a new dissimilarity index, based on an automatic adaptive tuning function, to include both proximity measures w.r.t. values and w.r.t. behavior. A comparative numerical analysis between the proposed index and the classical distance measures is performed on the basis of two datasets: a synthetic dataset and a dataset from a public health study.