Improved method for the determination of anatoxin-a and two of its metabolites in blue-green algae using liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

Anatoxin-a, a neurotoxin produced by blue-green algae (BGA) species, can cause death to exposed organisms. In North America, BGA are harvested and sold as food supplements, some of which contain elevated levels of other algal toxins, such as microcystins. Concern that elevated levels of anatoxin-a also may be present in BGA food supplements has led to the development of a simple method to determine the presence of anatoxin-a in BGA. Some researchers have successfully analyzed this compound using liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection by forming a fluorescent derivative with 4-fluoro-7-nitrobenzofurazan (NBD-F) in water and phytoplankton extracts. With this method, the background noise is high in BGA extracts due to the presence of co-extractives. Addition of o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) and mercaptoethanol to the extract before addition of the NBD-F resulted in the successful removal of primary amines from the background noise when the NBD-F derivatives were detected with fluorescence. Improved chromatograms were obtained when extracts were cleaned up in this manner, leading to a lower detection limit (approximately 50 microg/kg) for anatoxin-a. The detection limits obtained for the 2 degradation products dihydroanatoxin-a and epoxyanatoxin-a in BGA extracts were similarly low (55 and 65 microg/kg, respectively).     

Elucidating Diphosphoinositol Polyphosphate Function with Nonhydrolyzable Analogues

The diphosphoinositol polyphosphates (PP‐IPs) represent a novel class of high‐energy phosphate‐containing messengers which control a wide variety of cellular processes. It is thought that PP‐IPs exert their pleiotropic effects as allosteric regulators and through pyrophosphorylation of protein substrates. However, most details of PP‐IP signaling have remained elusive because of a paucity of suitable tools. We describe the synthesis of PP‐IP bisphosphonate analogues (PCP‐IPs), which are resistant to chemical and biochemical degradation. While the two regioisomers 1PCP‐IP₅ and 5PCP‐IP₅ inhibited Akt phosphorylation with similar potencies, 1PCP‐IP₅ was much more effective at inhibiting its cognate phosphatase hDIPP1. Furthermore, the PCP analogues inhibit protein pyrophosphorylation because of their inability to transfer the β‐phosphoryl group, and thus enable the distinction between PP‐IP signaling mechanisms. As such, the PCP analogues will find widespread applications for the structural and biochemical characterization of PP‐IP signaling properties.     

Carbon isotope ratio measurements of glyphosate and AMPA by liquid chromatography coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry

The interest in compound-specific isotope analysis for product authenticity control and source differentiation in environmental sciences has grown rapidly during the last decade. However, the isotopic analysis of very polar analytes is a challenging task due to the lack of suitable chromatographic separation techniques which can be used coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry. In this work, we present the first method to measure carbon isotope compositions of the widely applied herbicide glyphosate and its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) by liquid chromatography coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry. We demonstrate that this analysis can be carried out either in cation exchange or in reversed-phase separation modes. The reversed-phase separation yields a better performance in terms of resolution compared with the cation exchange method. The measurement of commercial glyphosate herbicide samples show its principal applicability and reveals a wide range of δ¹³C values between ?24 and ?34 ‰ for different manufacturers. The absolute minimum amounts required to perform a precise and accurate determination of carbon isotope compositions of glyphosate and AMPA were in the sub-microgram range. The method proposed is sensitive enough to further perform the experiments that are necessary to better understand the carbon isotope fractionation associated to the natural degradation of glyphosate into AMPA. Furthermore, it can be used for contaminant source allocation and product authenticity as well.     

On-shell Extension of Distributions

We consider distributions on \({\mathbb{R}^{n}{\setminus}\{0\}}\) which satisfy a given set of partial differential equations and provide criteria for the existence of extensions to \({\mathbb{R}^n}\) that satisfy the same set of equations on \({\mathbb{R}^n}\) . We use the results to construct distributions satisfying specific renormalisation conditions in the Epstein and Glaser approach to perturbative quantum field theory. Contrary to other approaches, we provide a unified approach to treat Lorentz covariance, invariance under global gauge group and almost homogeneity, as well as discrete symmetries. We show that all such symmetries can be recovered by applying a linear map defined for all degrees of divergence. Using similar techniques, we find a relation between on-shell and off-shell time-ordered products involving higher derivatives of the fields.     

Challenges and trends in the determination of selected chemical contaminants and allergens in food

This article covers challenges and trends in the determination of some major food chemical contaminants and allergens, which-among others-are being monitored by Health Canada's Food Directorate and for which background levels in food and human exposure are being analyzed and calculated. Eleven different contaminants/contaminant groups and allergens have been selected for detailed discussion in this paper. They occur in foods as a result of: use as a food additive or ingredient; processing-induced reactions; food packaging migration; deliberate adulteration; and/or presence as a chemical contaminant or natural toxin in the environment. Examples include acrylamide as a food-processing-induced contaminant, bisphenol A as a food packaging-derived chemical, melamine and related compounds as food adulterants and persistent organic pollutants, and perchlorate as an environmental contaminant. Ochratoxin A, fumonisins, and paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins are examples of naturally occurring toxins whereas sulfites, peanuts, and milk exemplify common allergenic food additives/ingredients. To deal with the increasing number of sample matrices and analytes of interest, two analytical approaches have become increasingly prevalent. The first has been the development of rapid screening methods for a variety of analytes based on immunochemical techniques, utilizing ELISA or surface plasmon resonance technology. The second is the development of highly sophisticated multi-analyte methods based on liquid chromatography coupled with multiple-stage mass spectrometry for identification and simultaneous quantification of a wide range of contaminants, often with much less requirement for tedious cleanup procedures. Whereas rapid screening methods enable testing of large numbers of samples, the multi analyte mass spectrometric methods enable full quantification with confirmation of the analytes of interest. Both approaches are useful when gathering surveillance data to determine occurrence and background levels of both recognized and newly identified contaminants in foods in order to estimate human daily intake for health risk assessment.     

A generalization of the zero–one principle for sorting algorithms

In this paper a new general approach for the so-called “zero-one principle” for sorting algorithms is described. A theorem from propositional logic that states the connection between two-valued logic and many-valued logic is used to prove this zero-one principle. As a consequence a zero-one principle for a more general class of sorting algorithms is derived.     

Dissecting the activation of insulin degrading enzyme by inositol pyrophosphates and their bisphosphonate analogs

Inositol poly- and pyrophosphates (InsPs and PP-InsPs) are densely phosphorylated eukaryotic messengers, which are involved in numerous cellular processes. To elucidate their signaling functions at the molecular level, non-hydrolyzable bisphosphonate analogs of inositol pyrophosphates, PCP-InsPs, have been instrumental. Here, an efficient synthetic strategy to obtain these analogs in unprecedented quantities is described – relying on the use of combined phosphate ester-phosphoramidite reagents. The PCP-analogs, alongside their natural counterparts, were applied to investigate their regulatory effect on insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE), using a range of biochemical, biophysical and computational methods. A unique interplay between IDE, its substrates and the PP-InsPs was uncovered, in which the PP-InsPs differentially modulated the activity of the enzyme towards short peptide substrates. Aided by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations, a flexible binding mode for the InsPs/PP-InsPs was identified at the anion binding site of IDE. Targeting IDE for therapeutic purposes should thus take regulation by endogenous PP-InsP metabolites into account.

An efficient synthesis of non-hydrolyzable inositol pyrophosphate analogs was developed to subsequently investigate the regulation of insulin-degrading enzyme by these hyperphosphorylated signaling molecules.     

Thermodynamics of associated solutions: Henry's constants for nonpolar solutes in water

Hu, Y., Azevedo, D., Lüdecke, D. and Prausnitz, J., 1984. Thermodynamics of associated solutions: Henry's constants for nonpolar solutes in water. Fluid Phase Equilibria,17: 303–321.A systematic derivation is presented for the Helmholtz energy of a van der Waals fluid mixture whose nonideality is ascribed to both chemical and physical interactions; this derivation, applicable to all fluid densities, leads to an equation of state which contains chemical equilibrium constants in addition to the customary physical van der Waals constants a and b. Attention is given to the need for simplifying assumptions and to the variety of symplifying assumptions that can lead to useful results. A particular equation of state is used to correlate Henry's constants for nonpolar solutes in water over a wide temperature range. The correlation, however, is only partly successful, because a one-fluid van der Waals theory of mixtures is not satisfactory for mixtures containing molecules that differ appreciably in size, especially in the dilute region.