Evolution of antibodies for environmental monitoring: from mice to plants

Immunoassays are one of the most convenient methods for environmental monitoring, but have been limited so far by low yield and low affinity antibodies (Abs). With the advent of recombinant Ab (rAb) technology and the expression of these Abs in organisms such as yeast, bacteria, insects and plants, widespread monitoring of our food and environment for organic contaminants using immunoassays has become feasible. A multitude of immunoassays have been developed to detect pesticides in soils, ground and river water, foods and biological samples, such as urine and semen. In this paper, we describe advances in Ab production, the move away from using animals, phage-display technologies and the advent of plant-derived Ab expression systems. Finally, we describe future possibilities in Ab technology for environmental monitoring.     

Accurate and rapid estimation on spectral interferences in routine analysis by ICP-AES: use of mutual interference coefficients

A practical method to estimate spectral interferences and to select optimum analytical lines in ICP-AES is suggested. Depending on the matrix composition and the amounts of the analyte, the analytical lines suffering from little interferences and the limit of determination can be determined from calculation using spectral interference coefficients. For this calculation, the spectral interference coefficients, which are defined as apparent mass of the analyte equivalent to the spectral interference from unit mass of the interferent, are obtained experimentally for 639 emission lines of 68 elements. There is a good correlation between the coefficients obtained on two spectrometers having different resolutions.     

Liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of fosinoprilat in human serum using automated 96-well solid-phase extraction for sample preparation

A sensitive, specific, accurate and reproducible liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the quantitation of fosinoprilat in 0.2 mL of human serum. The method employed acidification (with pH 4.0 sodium acetate buffer) of the serum samples to minimize the hydrolysis of the prodrug fosinopril to fosinoprilat prior to purification by automated 96-well solid-phase extraction. The required chromatographic separation of fosinoprilat and fosinopril was achieved isocratically on a Luna C8 analytical column (2 x 50 mm, 3 microm). The total run time was 2 min. The mobile phase contained methanol and water with 10 mM ammonium acetate. Detection was by positive ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. The standard curve, which ranged from 2.00 to 500 ng/mL, was fitted to a 1/x(2) weighted linear regression model. Fosinoprilat quality control (QC) samples used to determine the accuracy and precision of the method were prepared in human serum at concentrations of 5.00, 200, 400 and 1000 ng/mL. The assay accuracy was within 8% (dev). The intra- and inter-assay precisions were within 6 and 3% (RSD), respectively. Fosinopril QC samples used to gauge the rate of hydrolysis of fosinopril to fosinoprilat during the assay procedure were prepared in human serum at 500 ng/mL. The hydrolysis of fosinopril to fosinoprilat was 相似文献   

A new series of pyrimidine-containing linear molecules: their elegant crystal structures and intriguing photophysical properties

A new series of aza-substituted analogues 3-5 based on the 1,4-bis(phenylethynyl)benzene moiety have been synthesized by the selective Pd-catalyzed Sonogashira coupling reaction from 5-bromo-2-iodopyrimidine (1). In these linear molecules, the dipolar pyrimidine moiety is introduced as a probe to investigate factors that control the intermolecular interactions over the crystal engineering. The results reveal that the manner of packing changes both dipolar interactions between linear pyrimidine-containing molecules and transition moments simultaneously, resulting in remarkably different photophysical properties. Due to their versatile dipole-dipole and face-to-face pi-piinteractions in a crystal motif, further applications on the design of ordered crystalline materials for the field effect transistors are promising.     

Mild oxidation of alcohols with o-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) in water/acetone mixture in the presence of beta-cyclodextrin

A mild and efficient oxidation of alcohols with o-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) catalyzed by beta-cyclodextrin in a water/acetone mixture (86:14) has been developed. A series of alcohols were oxidized at room temperature in excellent yields.     

A comparison between the SBR vulcanizates reinforced by magnesium methacrylate added directly or prepared in situ

The styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) cured by dicumyl peroxide was reinforced by magnesium methacrylate [Mg(MAA)₂], which was added into SBR directly or prepared in situ in SBR through the neutralization of magnesium oxide (MgO) and methacrylic acid (MAA). The experimental results show that the SBR vulcanizates reinforced by Mg(MAA)₂ prepared in situ have better mechanical properties than those reinforced by Mg(MAA)₂ added directly. The SBR vulcanizates with Mg(MAA)₂ prepared in situ are semi-transparent, but those with Mg(MAA)₂ added directly are opaque. The Fourier transform infrared analysis shows that the polymerization conversion of Mg(MAA)₂ in the SBR vulcanizates with Mg(MAA)₂ prepared in situ is much higher than that in the SBR vulcanizates with Mg(MAA)₂ added directly. The scan probe microscopy photographs show that the particles in the SBR vulcanizates with Mg(MAA)₂ prepared in situ are much finer and disperse more evenly than that in the SBR vulcanizates with Mg(MAA)₂ added directly.     

Multiple sprayer system for high-throughput electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A multiple sprayer electrospray ion source for high-throughput analysis is described. The ion source is comprised of multiple electrospray capillaries, each with an ion lens located near the tip. The electric potentials applied to the ion lenses are used to control the sprayers. The use of ion lenses eliminates the need for mechanical blocking devices to selectively enable or disable the sprayers, and results in a less expensive and more reliable set-up. Sprayers can be enabled or disabled within approximately 50-250 ms when the lens potentials are controlled manually. For simultaneous operation of multiple electrospray capillaries, it is advantageous to orient the capillaries so that the spray from each passes directly in front of the entrance aperture of the mass spectrometer.     

Efficient photocleavage of DNA by cationic porphyrin-acridine hybrids with the effective length of diamino alkyl linkage

Positively charged porphyrins bearing an acridine with various lengths of diamino alkyl linkage, 5-[4-[(6-chloro-2-methoxy-9-acridyl)aminoalkylaminocarbonyl]phenyl]-10,15,20-tris(4-N-methylpyridiniumyl)porphine triiodide, alkyl=ethyl, butyl, hexyl, or octyl, were synthesized. They exhibited more enhanced photocleavage activity of pUC18 plasmid DNA than TMPyP, meso-tetrakis(4-N-methylpyridiniumyl)porphine, which is well known to bind to DNA tightly and to cleave DNA effectively; the hybrid linked with the hexamethylene chain showed particularly high activity. An equilibrium dialysis experiment demonstrated that the binding ability of the hybrids to calf thymus (CT) DNA correlated quantitatively with the photocleavage activity. The lack of the substantial red-shift of the Soret maxima of the hybrids through the titration with CTDNA denied the intercalative binding of the porphyrin part. In their circular dichroism (CD) spectral change on binding to CTDNA, two negative peaks appeared at 275 nm and at 285-290 nm in the UV range. The latter negative peak was observed for hybrids, but not for TMPyP, and thus we assigned it to induced CD (ICD) derived from intercalation of acridine chromophore. In the visible range, the hybrids showed only a positive peak around their Soret maxima, and this feature suggested the porphyrin moiety lay in the DNA groove. In addition, the length of the linker markedly influenced the ellipticity of their visible ICD, suggesting that the proximity of the porphyrin moiety to DNA was greatly affected by the linker.     

A new method for the quantitation of aflatoxin M1 in urine by high performance liquid chromatography and its application to the etiologic study of hepatoma

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the analysis of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in urine is described. Urine samples were treated with saturated lead acetate and AFM1 was extracted with chloroform. After washing with water to remove impurities the compound was derivatized with trifluoroacetic acid and the AFM1 derivative was analyzed quantitatively by HPLC. The sample pretreatment is simple and more selective. A good line correlation between AFM1 peak height and its concentration was obtained when AFM1 content was in the range of 50-400 pg. The ratio of recovery was 87.42%. Sensitivity is 0.01 ppb. The method is applicable to trace analysis. Results in urine of residents who live in the high/low liver cancer incidence area in Fushui county were the same as that of previous epidemiological investigation.