Identification of extracellular nanoparticle subsets by nuclear magnetic resonance

Exosomes are a subset of secreted lipid envelope-encapsulated extracellular vesicles (EVs) of 50–150 nm diameter that can transfer cargo from donor to acceptor cells. In the current purification protocols of exosomes, many smaller and larger nanoparticles such as lipoproteins, exomers and microvesicles are typically co-isolated as well. Particle size distribution is one important characteristics of EV samples, as it reflects the cellular origin of EVs and the purity of the isolation. However, most of the physicochemical analytical methods today cannot illustrate the smallest exosomes and other small particles like the exomers. Here, we demonstrate that diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method enables the determination of a very broad distribution of extracellular nanoparticles, ranging from 1 to 500 nm. The range covers sizes of all particles included in EV samples after isolation. The method is non-invasive, as it does not require any labelling or other chemical modification. We investigated EVs secreted from milk as well as embryonic kidney and renal carcinoma cells. Western blot analysis and immuno-electron microscopy confirmed expression of exosomal markers such as ALIX, TSG101, CD81, CD9, and CD63 in the EV samples. In addition to the larger particles observed by nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) in the range of 70–500 nm, the DOSY distributions include a significant number of smaller particles in the range of 10–70 nm, which are visible also in transmission electron microscopy images but invisible in NTA. Furthermore, we demonstrate that hyperpolarized chemical exchange saturation transfer (Hyper-CEST) with ¹²⁹Xe NMR indicates also the existence of smaller and larger nanoparticles in the EV samples, providing also additional support for DOSY results. The method implies also that the Xe exchange is significantly faster in the EV pool than in the lipoprotein/exomer pool.

Diffusion and xenon NMR based methods to determine a very broad range of sizes and sub-sets of extracellular vesicles.     

An impedance QCM study on the partitioning of bioactive compounds in supported phospholipid bilayers

The interaction of two drugs of small molecular size, propranolol and tetracaine, and the membrane-perturbing peptide melittin with a phospholipid bilayer supported on a SiO2 surface was studied with the quartz crystal microbalance. All three bioactive compounds interacted with the lipid bilayer and changed its viscoelastic properties. Adsorbed mass of the compounds was analyzed with a viscoelastic model as a function of the concentration of the compounds in the aqueous phase, as well as the effect of the compounds on the bilayer viscoelasticity. The analysis was based on the interpretation of the impedance of the crystal, utilizing the 5th, 7th and 9th overtone of the fundamental 5 MHz resonance frequency.     

Structure of anionic phospholipid coatings on silica by dissipative quartz crystal microbalance

The adsorption of anionic phospholipids on silica was investigated by the dissipative quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. Liposomes composed of 1 mM 80:20 mol % of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC)/phosphatidic acid, POPC/phosphatidylglycerol, or POPC/phosphatidylserine in N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-ethanesulfonic acid) buffer at pH 7.4 (with or without 3 mM of CaCl2) were examined. We have previously demonstrated that similar phospholipid coatings can be used in capillary electrochromatography as a stationary phase for the separation of analytes. In this work, we focus on the formation of the coatings and on the type of lipid structure formed on silica. The QCM investigation comprised qualitative results based on changes in frequency and resistance, and quantitative modeling of the obtained results. The latter was performed using the dissipative QCM, which measures the quartz crystal impedance, combined with equivalent circuit analysis. A previously developed coating and cleaning procedure for phospholipid-coated fused silica capillaries was adopted in this study, and the same silica-coated crystal was used throughout the QCM study. We will demonstrate in this work that the type of lipid structure formed on silica, that is, a rather rigid supported lipid bilayer or a viscoelastic supported vesicle layer (SVL), is highly dependent on the lipid and solvent composition. We also show for the first time that the modeling of the dissipative QCM data can be used to extract a more quantitative picture of an adsorbed SVL, because, so far, published studies have merely used the QCM data in a qualitative sense.     

Stability of siloxane couplers on pure and fluorine doped SnO2 (110) surface: A first principles study

Siloxane is a favorable candidate as an anchor group that can be used to bind organic molecules to SnO₂ surfaces, with a wide range of practical applications. Therefore, adsorption geometries and energies of siloxane coupler on the SnO₂ (110) surface have been investigated in this study using quantum-chemical periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We present a comparative study of different siloxane adsorption arrangements on pristine and fluorine doped SnO₂ surface. According to the calculations, the surface doping with fluorine leads to stabilization of the siloxane network at the stannic oxide surface. The trend is analyzed in terms of additional charge provided by F impurities to the chemisorbed oxygen atoms thus increasing the ionicity of their bonding. Implications of the current findings for the design of organic-metal oxide interface with better thermo-stability and improved electronic properties are discussed.     

Bayesian predictive modeling and comparison of oil samples

Statistical comparison of oil samples is an integral part of oil spill identification, which deals with the process of linking an oil spill with its source of origin. In current practice, a frequentist hypothesis test is often used to evaluate evidence in support of a match between a spill and a source sample. As frequentist tests are only able to evaluate evidence against a hypothesis but not in support of it, we argue that this leads to unsound statistical reasoning. Moreover, currently only verbal conclusions on a very coarse scale can be made about the match between two samples, whereas a finer quantitative assessment would often be preferred. To address these issues, we propose a Bayesian predictive approach for evaluating the similarity between the chemical compositions of two oil samples. We derive the underlying statistical model from some basic assumptions on modeling assays in analytical chemistry, and to further facilitate and improve numerical evaluations, we develop analytical expressions for the key elements of Bayesian inference for this model. The approach is illustrated with both simulated and real data and is shown to have appealing properties in comparison with both standard frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel cationic polyelectrolyte coatings for capillary electrophoresis

The use of bare fused silica capillary in CE can sometimes be inconvenient due to undesirable effects including adsorption of sample or instability of the EOF. This can often be avoided by coating the inner surface of the capillary. In this work, we present and characterize two novel polyelectrolyte coatings (PECs) poly(2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium iodide) (PMOTAI) and poly(3‐methyl‐1‐(4‐vinylbenzyl)‐imidazolium chloride) (PIL‐1) for CE. The coated capillaries were studied using a series of aqueous buffers of varying pH, ionic strength, and composition. Our results show that the investigated polyelectrolytes are usable as semi‐permanent (physically adsorbed) coatings with at least five runs stability before a short coating regeneration is necessary. Both PECs showed a considerably decreased stability at pH 11.0. The EOF was higher using Good's buffers than with sodium phosphate buffer at the same pH and ionic strength. The thickness of the PEC layers studied by quartz crystal microbalance was 0.83 and 0.52 nm for PMOTAI and PIL‐1, respectively. The hydrophobicity of the PEC layers was determined by analysis of a homologous series of alkyl benzoates and expressed as the distribution constants. Our result demonstrates that both PECs had comparable hydrophobicity, which enabled separation of compounds with log P_o/w > 2. The ability to separate cationic drugs was shown with β‐blockers, compounds often misused in doping. Both coatings were also able to separate hydrolysis products of the ionic liquid 1,5‐diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non‐5‐ene acetate at highly acidic conditions, where bare fused silica capillaries failed to accomplish the separation.     

Optical properties of thermally responsive amphiphilic gold nanoparticles protected with polymers

Amphiphilic thermally responsive gold nanoparticles have been prepared by protecting the particles with both polystyrene, PS, and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), PNIPAM, chains. Particles form a monolayer on a water surface in a Langmuir trough, and according to in situ spectroscopic measurements, the surface plasmon resonance, SPR, band undergoes a blue-shift during the monolayer compression. The compression-induced blue-shift is related to a change in the conformation of tethered PNIPAM chains; the phenomenon is discussed on the basis of Mie-Drude theory. In contrast, a red-shift in the SPR of the multilayers of the same nanoparticles transferred at different temperatures has been observed with increasing the deposition cycle, attributed to the presence of a weak interparticle coupling in the multilayer.     

Characterization of phosphatidylcholine/polyethylene glycol-lipid aggregates and their use as coatings and carriers in capillary electrophoresis

PEG-stabilized lipid aggregates are a promising new class of model membranes in biotechnical and pharmaceutical applications. CE techniques, field-flow fractionation, light scattering, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), and microscopic techniques were used to study aggregates composed of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleyl-sn-glycero-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) and PEG-lipid conjugates. The PEG-lipids, with PEG molar masses of 1000, 2000, and 3000, were 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy-(PEG)] derivatives with either dimyristoyl (DM, 14:0) or distearoyl (DS, 18:0) acyl groups. The 80/20 mol% POPC/PEG-lipid dispersions in HEPES at pH 7.4 were extruded through 100 nm size membranes. Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF), photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used to determine the sizes of POPC and the PEGylated aggregates. All methods demonstrated that the DSPEG-lipid sterically stabilized aggregates were smaller in size than pure POPC vesicles. The zeta potentials of the aggregates were measured and showed an increase from -19 mV for pure POPC to -4 mV for the POPC/DSPEG3000 aggregates. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), electron cryo-microscopy (EM), and multifrequency QCM studies were made to achieve information about the PEGylated coatings on silica. Lipid aggregates with different POPC/DSPEG3000-lipid ratios were applied as capillary coating material, and the 80/20 mol% composition was found to give the most suppressed and stable EOFs. Mixtures of low-molar-mass drugs and FITC-labeled amino acids were separated with the PEGylated aggregates as carriers (EKC) or as coating material (CEC). Detection was made by UV and LIF.     

Weight-restricted DEA in action: from expert opinions to mathematical models

A common problem in real-world DEA applications is that all inputs and outputs may not be equally relevant to the organizations analysed and their stakeholders. In many cases, one is also faced with a data set where the decision-making units do not clearly outnumber the quantity of inputs and outputs. This study reports an application where DEA embellished with weight restrictions is used to analyse the efficiency of public organizations to overcome the above-mentioned problems. Whereas there are numerous documented applications of weight-restricted DEA in the literature, the process of defining the actual weight restrictions is seldom described. However, that part — defining the actual weights restrictions based on price, preference or value information — is the most difficult step involved in using the weight-restricted DEA. Comparing various weight restriction schemes with real data suggests that the ability to consider and include preference information in DEA adds important insights into the analysis.