Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from ambient air particulate matter using a cold fiber solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from ambient air particulate matter (PM) were analyzed by a new method that utilized direct immersion (DI) and cold fiber (CF) SPME-GC/MS. Experimental design was used to optimize the conditions of extraction by DI-CF-SPME with a 100μm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber. The optimal conditions included a 5min equilibration at 70°C time in an ultrasonic bath with an extraction time of 60min. The optimized method was validated by the analysis of a NIST standard reference material (SRM), 1649b urban dust. The results obtained were in good agreement with certified values. PAH recoveries for reference materials were between 88 and 98%, with a relative standard deviation ranging from 5 to 17%. Detection limits (LOD) varied from 0.02 to 1.16ng and the quantification limits (LOQ) varied from 0.05 to 3.86ng. The optimized and validated method was applied to the determination of PAH from real particulate matter (PM10) and total suspended particulate (TPS) samples collected on quartz fiber filters with high volume samplers.     

Practical method transfer from high performance liquid chromatography to ultra-high performance liquid chromatography: the importance of frictional heating

In theory, with identical stationary phase chemistry, the transfer of an HPLC method to UHPLC conditions is straightforward and necessitates the calculation of new conditions based on column and instrument geometries. Occasionally, undesirable changes in selectivity, retention or efficiency have been reported and have been attributed to a frictional heating phenomenon that is due to the elevated generated pressure drop. In the present study, the frictional heating in a UHPLC system was evaluated experimentally under gradient elution conditions (acetonitrile/buffer at pH 3 and 9) with generated pressure drops in the range of 100-1000 bar on both 1.0mm and 2.1mm I.D. columns using a mixture of 10 representative basic, acidic and neutral pharmaceutical compounds. Under adiabatic conditions (i.e., still-air oven), the longitudinal temperature gradient was estimated at +4 °C, +8 °C and +16 °C at 300, 600 and 1000 bar, respectively, on a 2.1mm I.D. column using an empirical measurement procedure. With the 1.0mm I.D. column, these values were reduced to +3 °C, +6 °C and +12 °C, respectively. Finally, various approaches to eliminate or at least to reduce the effect of frictional heating are briefly discussed.     

Nanocomposite Carbon‐PDMS Material for Chip‐Based Electrochemical Detection

This paper presents an alternative approach to create low‐cost and patternable carbon electrodes suitable for microfluidic devices. The fabrication and the electrochemical performances of electrodes made of Polydimethylsiloxane doped with commercially available carbon black (C‐PDMS) are described. Conductivity and electrochemical measurements performed on various carbon to PDMS ratios showed that electrodes with suitable electrochemical properties were obtained with a ratio of 25 %.     

Dipole-Guided Electron Capture Causes Abnormal Dissociations of Phosphorylated Pentapeptides

Electron transfer and capture mass spectra of a series of doubly charged ions that were phosphorylated pentapeptides of a tryptic type (pS,A,A,A,R) showed conspicuous differences in dissociations of charge-reduced ions. Electron transfer from both gaseous cesium atoms at 100 keV kinetic energies and fluoranthene anion radicals in an ion trap resulted in the loss of a hydrogen atom, ammonia, and backbone cleavages forming complete series of sequence z ions. Elimination of phosphoric acid was negligible. In contrast, capture of low-energy electrons by doubly charged ions in a Penning ion trap induced loss of a hydrogen atom followed by elimination of phosphoric acid as the dominant dissociation channel. Backbone dissociations of charge-reduced ions also occurred but were accompanied by extensive fragmentation of the primary products. z-Ions that were terminated with a deaminated phosphoserine radical competitively eliminated phosphoric acid and H₂PO₄ radicals. A mechanism is proposed for this novel dissociation on the basis of a computational analysis of reaction pathways and transition states. Electronic structure theory calculations in combination with extensive molecular dynamics mapping of the potential energy surface provided structures for the precursor phosphopeptide dications. Electron attachment produces a multitude of low lying electronic states in charge-reduced ions that determine their reactivity in backbone dissociations and H- atom loss. The predominant loss of H atoms in ECD is explained by a distortion of the Rydberg orbital space by the strong dipolar field of the peptide dication framework. The dipolar field steers the incoming electron to preferentially attach to the positively charged arginine side chain to form guanidinium radicals and trigger their dissociations.     

Surface plasmon resonance biosensor for determination of tetrodotoxin: prevalidation study

A label-free surface plasmon resonance biosensor method was applied to determine tetrodotoxin (TTX) in pufferfish matrixes using an antibody inhibition assay format. A prevalidation study was conducted to demonstrate the assay performance characteristics, such as selectivity, LOD, LOQ, repeatability, reproducibility, and accuracy. Three participating laboratories reported standard curves in buffer and pufferfish matrix. A set of blind samples with TTX spiked into buffer as well as in 10% pufferfish extract were analyzed. Additionally, three blind naturally contaminated samples were analyzed, and the results were compared to those obtained using a reference method (HPLC/electrospray ionization-selected reaction monitoring-MS). The developed method was demonstrated to be capable of detecting TTX in pufferfish matrix standard samples in a broad concentration range (2-9000 ng/mL) with an LOD of 1.5 ng/mL. Between-laboratory recovery values were in the range of 51-190% with a mean of 107%, and 64-180% with a mean of 103% for TTX-spiked samples in buffer and pufferfish matrix, respectively. Between-laboratory recoveries were in the satisfactory range of 101-119% for naturally contaminated samples. This robust, rapid, and noninvasive method may serve as an attractive alternative to established methods for detection of TTX in pufferfish extracts.     

Azidoacetone as a complexing agent of transition metals Ni2+/Co2+ promoted dissociation of the C-C bond in azidoacetone

The relevance of metal interactions with azides has led us to the study of the complexation of some transition metals, nickel and cobalt, by azidoacetone by means of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Complexes were obtained from solutions of NiCl(2) and CoCl(2) , in methanol/water. Nickel was electrosprayed with other counter ion, bromide (Br), as well as other solvent (ethanol/water). For nickel and cobalt, the complexes detected were single positively charged, with various stoichiometries, some resulted from the fragmentation of the ligand, the loss of N(2) being quite common. The most abundant species were [Ni(II)Az(2)X](+) where X = Cl, Br and Az = azidoacetone. Some of the complexes showed solvation with the solvent components. Metal reduction was observed in complexes where a radical was lost, resulting from the homolytic cleavage of a metal coordination bond. Collision-induced dissociation (CID) experiments followed by tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) analysis were not absolutely conclusive about the coordination site. However, terminal ions of the fragmentation routes were explained by a gas-phase mechanism proposed where a C-C bond was activated and the metal inserted subsequently. Density functional theory calculations provided structures for some complexes. In [Ni(II)Az(2)X](+) species, one azidoacetone ligand is monodentate and the dominant binding location is the alkylated nitrogen and not the carbonyl group. The other azidoacetone ligand is bidentate showing coordination through alkylated nitrogen and the carbonyl group. These are also the preferential binding sites for the most stable isomer of [Ni(II)AzX](+) species.     

Synthesis and luminescence properties of new red-shifted absorption lanthanide(III) chelates suitable for peptide and protein labelling

The synthesis and photo-physical properties of an original bis-pyridinylpyrazine chromophore efficiently sensitising europium(III) and samarium(III) are described. The corresponding lanthanide(III) complexes display in aqueous solutions a maximum excitation wavelength which is significantly red-shifted compared to the usual terpyridine-based chelates, and a valuable luminescence brightness above 2,000 dm(3) mol(-1) cm(-1) at 345 nm was obtained with a europium(III) derivative. Further functionalisation with three different bioconjugatable handles was also investigated and their ability to efficiently label a model hexapeptide was evaluated and compared. Finally, the best bioconjugatable europium(III) chelate was used in representative labelling experiments involving monoclonal antibodies and the luminescence features of the corresponding bioconjugates remained satisfactory.     

Synthesis of novel chromene scaffolds for adenosine receptors

A one-pot procedure was developed for the synthesis of novel 3-[amino(methoxy)methylene]-2-oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-chromen-4-yl)-3-cyanoacetamides and chromeno[3,4-c]pyridine-1-carbonitriles from the reaction of 2-oxo-2H-chromene-3-carbonitriles and cyanoacetamides. These chromene derivatives were identified as new scaffolds for adenosine receptors and the hits 3a, 3c, 5a, and 5b were found.     

New chiral cyclooctatriene-based polycyclic architectures

The synthesis and properties of new chiral polycyclic architectures that display both helicity and a saddle-type shape are described. The enantiomers have been separated, and their absolute configuration was determined by VCD and ECD. The unprecedented molecular architecture is based on a cyclooctatriene core surrounded by an association of benzo[c]fluorene and ortho-phenylene units.     

L-arginine binding to human inducible nitric oxide synthase: an antisymmetric funnel route toward isoform-specific inhibitors?

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule produced by a family of enzymes called nitric oxide synthases (NOS). Because NO is involved in various pathological conditions, the development of potent and isoform-selective NOS inhibitors is an important challenge. In the present study, the dimer of oxygenase domain of human iNOS (iNOSoxy) complexed to its natural substrate L-arginine (L-Arg) and both heme and tetrahydro-L-biopterin (BH4) cofactors was studied through multiple molecular dynamics simulations. Starting from the X-ray structure available for that complex (PDB: 1NSI ), a 16 ns equilibration trajectory was first obtained. Twelve dynamics of slow extraction of L-Arg out from the iNOSoxy active site were then performed. The steered molecular dynamics (SMD) approach was used starting from three different points of the reference trajectory for a total simulation time of 35 ns. A probable unbinding/binding pathway of L-Arg was characterized. It was suggested that a driving force directed the substrate toward the heme pocket. Key intermediate steps/residues along the access route to the active site were identified along this "funnel shape" pathway and compared to existing data. A quasi-normal mode analysis performed on the SMD data suggested that large collective motions of the protein may be involved in L-Arg binding and that opening the route to the active site in one monomer promoted an inverse, closing motion in the second monomer. Finally, our findings might help to rationalize the design of human iNOS isoform competitive inhibitors.