Lancifoliaine, a new bisbenzylisoquinoline from the bark of Litsea lancifolia

A new bisbenzylisoquinoline, lancifoliaine (1), together with seven known alkaloids--N-allyllaurolitsine (2), reticuline (3), actinodaphnine, norboldine, pallidine, cassythicine and boldine--were isolated from the stem bark of Litsea lancifolia (Lauraceae). In addition to that of lancifoliaine, complete 13C-NMR data of N-allyl-laurolitsine (2) was also reported. The alkaloidal structures were elucidated by means of high field 1D- and 2D-NMR IR, UV, and LCMS-IT-TOF spectral data. N-Allyllaurolitsine (2) showed a moderate vasorelaxant activity on isolated rat aorta.     

Detection of recombinant hirudin using capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection

Hirudin, a thrombin inhibitor, is a polypeptide of 65 amino acids. To check purity levels and perform pharmacokinetic studies of recombinant hirudin (r-hirudin), a specific and reproducible analysis method is required. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is rapidly becoming an important procedure for the analysis of biological molecules. Recently, CE combined with immunoassay has emerged as a new analytical technique. CE-based immunoassay (CEIA) is a sensitive and specific method combining laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and immunoassay. Therefore, in this study, we specifically investigated fluorescence labeling and determination of r-hirudin by CEIA with a LIF detector using labeled r-hirudin and polyclonal antibody. r-Hirudin was labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC). FITC-labeled r-hirudin was purified using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The method is based on preincubation of r-hirudin and antibody for 20 min, followed by CE analysis using an uncoated capillary. Free and bound r-hirudin were separated within 5 min using CE with high reproducibility. This study demonstrated that the CEIA method could be applied to quantitative analysis of r-hirudin in biological fluids.     

水溶性硼酸亲和富集材料的制备及基于酶联免疫吸附法检测人肝微粒体糖蛋白的应用

生物样品中的糖蛋白丰度低,且在检测中易受到其它非糖蛋白的抑制和干扰,需在分析检测前对糖蛋白进行富集,但常规的基于固相材料的糖蛋白富集方法不易与生物技术中最经典的酶联免疫吸附法(ELISA)兼容.本研究以树枝状聚合物PAMAM 4.0为载体, 结合硼酸亲和技术,制备了新型水溶性硼酸亲和富集材料(DBC),并将其应用于基于ELISA的人肝微粒体中糖蛋白的检测.采用标准糖蛋白对DBC富集条件进行优化,然后考察其灵敏度和抗干扰能力,将优化后的方法应用于复杂样品人肝微粒体糖蛋白富集.结果表明,DBC对糖蛋白的富集选择性可高达100000倍,可将糖蛋白的富集信号提高100倍.以DBC为富集材料,与ELISA分析技术相结合,只需一步简单的孵育,即可实现生物样品中糖蛋白的高灵敏度、高选择性检测,为疾病相关的糖蛋白组学研究提供了一种有效的检测手段.     

Nickel as a chemical modifier for sensitivity enhancement and fast atomization processes in electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric determination of cadmium in biological and environmental samples.

A systematic study of the efficiency of protons, Ni, Pd and Th as chemical modifiers for the determination of cadmium by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) using fast temperature programs was made for platform atomization. A comparison was made in terms of the salt type, absorbance-time profiles and elimination of the sodium chloride interference. The results were adapted to develop a method for the ETAAS determination of cadmium in biological and environmental samples. The highest sensitivity to determine cadmium in biological and environmental samples was obtained using nickel (together with protons) as a chemical modifier. The accuracy of the method was tested by the determination of cadmium in different certified reference materials. The best detection limit and the characteristic mass of Cd were found to be 0.03 ng mL(-1) and 0.35 pg, respectively.     

Stir bar sorptive extraction based on restricted access material for the direct extraction of caffeine and metabolites in biological fluids

A biocompatible stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) device was prepared using an alkyl-diol-silica (ADS) restricted access material (RAM) as the SBSE coating. The RAM-SBSE bar was able to simultaneously fractionate the protein component from a biological sample, while directly extracting caffeine and its metabolites, overcoming the present disadvantages of direct sampling in biological matrices by SBSE, such as fouling of the extraction coating by proteins. Desorption of the analytes was performed by stirring the bar in a water/ACN mixture (3/1, v/v) and subsequently reconcentrating the sample solution in water to enable HPLC-UV analysis to be performed. The limit of detection, based on a signal to noise ratio of 3, for caffeine was 25 ng/mL in plasma. The method was confirmed to be linear over the range of 0.5-100 microg/mL of caffeine with an average linear coefficient (R2) value of 0.9981. The injection repeatability and intra-assay precision of the method were evaluated over ten injections, resulting in a %RSD of approximately 8%. The RAM-SBSE device was robust (>50 extraction in plasma without significant signal loss) and simple to use, providing many direct extractions and subsequent determination of caffeine and its metabolites in biological fluids. In contrast to existing sample preparation methods for the analysis of caffeine and selected metabolites in biological fluids, this feasibility study using a biocompatible SBSE approach was advantageous in terms of simplifying the sample preparation procedures.     

Analysis of chemically synthesized oleoylethanolamide by gas-liquid chromatography

Oleoylethanolamide (OEA) is known to potentially have beneficial biological effects on weight management by controlling food intake and activating lipid catabolism. In biological fluids, OEA and other endogenously biosynthesized fatty acid ethanolamides are usually analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The present study provides analytical method to routinely assess the quality of OEA prepared for biological studies by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). The preparation of OEA for biomedical studies can be performed by N-acylation of oleic acid/esters or using oleoyl chloride. In the present study, OEA was prepared by transamidation of triolein. The analysis of the synthesized OEA has been performed by gas-liquid chromatography of its trimethylsilyl ether (TMS) derivatives. Free OEA cannot be analyzed as such because dehydration of the ethanolamide moiety promptly happens in the GLC injection. This thermal degradation reaction gives rise to the formation of an oxazoline derivative. The TMS moiety prevents the reaction, and the structure of the formed derivative was assessed by mass spectrometry. We show here that OEA prepared for biological studies can be routinely analyzed by GLC after TMS derivative preparation.     

Structural characterization and diffusional analysis of the inclusion complexes of fluoroadamantane with β-cyclodextrin and its derivatives studied via 1H, 13C and 19F NMR spectroscopy

This research conducts method development to study the diffusions of β-cyclodextrin and its derivatives (collectively called β-CDs) in biological systems. We proposed using fluoroadamantane (FA) β-CD inclusion complexes as a model system to study the diffusion of β-CDs by using ¹⁹F self-diffusion NMR technique. The use of ¹⁹F signal over ¹H signal arises from the advantage of being able to avoid the interference of ¹H signals from biological molecules and water. Another benefit of using FA is that the ¹⁹F relaxation times are not significantly influenced by viscous biological solutions due to the tumbling nature of FA in β-CD cavities. To synthesize the FA β-CD inclusion complexes, a FA THF (tetrahydrofuran) solution and a β-CD water solution were mixed together followed by lyophilization. The formation of the inclusion complexes in water were determined using HMQC and ROESY NMR experiments with the assistance of molecular modeling. To assess the method, both ¹H and ¹⁹F diffusion NMR were carried out to study the diffusions of four typical FA β-CD inclusion complexes. The results of this study illustrate that the diffusion coefficients obtained from the FA ¹⁹F signal truly measure those of the β-CDs’ diffusion coefficients in water. Thus, the proposed technique using our model system is valid to be used to study the diffusions of β-CDs in biological systems.     

QSAR modelling using combined simple competitive learning networks and RBF neural networks

The aim of this study was to propose a QSAR modelling approach based on the combination of simple competitive learning (SCL) networks with radial basis function (RBF) neural networks for predicting the biological activity of chemical compounds. The proposed QSAR method consisted of two phases. In the first phase, an SCL network was applied to determine the centres of an RBF neural network. In the second phase, the RBF neural network was used to predict the biological activity of various phenols and Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitors. The predictive ability of the proposed QSAR models was evaluated and compared with other QSAR models using external validation. The results of this study showed that the proposed QSAR modelling approach leads to better performances than other models in predicting the biological activity of chemical compounds. This indicated the efficiency of simple competitive learning networks in determining the centres of RBF neural networks.     

Screening of microdialysates taken before and after induced liver damage; on-line solid phase extraction-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

A novel method is described to follow known and unknown compounds in biological processes using microdialysis sampling and mass spectrometric detection. By implementation of internal standard, desalting/enrichment for the sample work-up, and multivariate data analysis, this methodology is a basis for future applications in early diagnosis of diseases and organ damage, as a complement to the routinely used clinical methods for biological samples. The present study includes screening without specific target analytes, of samples collected by microdialysis from liver of anaesthetized rats before and after local damage to this organ. Sample series were classified by principal component analysis, and the stimulation was identified in the chemical patterns produced by the presented analytical tool.     

2D-QSAR Studies on Pyrazole Compounds Containing Pyrimidine Amino

The quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) of 16 pyrazole compounds was studied by ab initio method at the HF/3-21G level using Guassian03 soft. The optimized structures together with some characteristic and electric parameters of the title compounds were obtained; some stereo-parameters were calculated by HyperChem software. Stepwise multiple regression method was adopted to establish bi-and tri-parametric models between biological activity and some parameters. The lager ΔE and logP,the higher biological activity; and the biological activity would be promoted with the smaller μ,QN and QPYRA. It provided a theory direction to synthesize some compounds with high activity.