Characterization of erythropoietin biosimilars using mass spectrometric CID and HCD techniques

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) is the first cloned hematopoietic growth factor available for pharmaceutical treatment, especially anemia, since 1988. Unfortunately, the ability of rHuEPO in boosting erythropoiesis, and thus aerobic capacity has led to its abuse in endurance sport. Besides, the expiry of the original rHuEPO patent has resulted in many biosimilars being produced which led to special requirements regarding quality control. As a consequence, there is a huge demand for all rHuEPOs to be well characterized for the ease of identification, differentiation, and detection. Glycoproteomic mass spectrometry, the most current promising approach for rHuEPOs analysis, was employed to characterize 4 rHuEPOs including epoetin-α, epoetin-β, darbepoetin-α and Mircera. Via nanoLC-ESI-MS/MS, distinct glycoproteomic profiles of each rHuEPO have been achieved for differential analysis. With two different fragmentation methods, collision-induced dissociation (CID) and higher-energy collision dissociation (HCD), maximum of 75%, 70%, 70%, and 77% protein sequence coverages were attained for epoetin-α, epoetin-β, darbepoetin-α and Mircera, respectively. From the peptides/glycopeptides mixture, similar and unique peptides/glycopeptides (biomarkers) for each rHuEPO have been identified. With the discovery of high quality and unique biomarkers, a more standardized and efficient method for quality control and rHuEPO abuse detection can be developed.     

Systematic microstructural development with thermal diffusivity behaviour from nanometric to micronic grains of strontium titanate

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Strontium titanate is a promising candidate for applications in thermoelectric, thermal management applications, and modern electronic devices because...     

Structural,spectroscopic properties and theoretical studies of (E)-1-(4-Bromophenyl)-3-(2,3,4-trimethoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one as a potential anti-oxidant agent

The new chalcone compound namely (E)-1-(4-Bromophenyl)-3-(2,3,4-trimethoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (C₁₈H₁₇BrO₄) is crystallized in the monoclinic crystal system of P2₁/c space group. The unit cell dimensions are: a = 8.0753 (10) Å, b = 21.873 (3) Å, c = 9.3362 (12) Å, α = 90°, β = 99.369 (2), γ = 90° and Z = 4. The single crystal was grown using slow evaporation solution growth technique. The newly synthesized compound was characterized by using IR, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR, UV-Vis and single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Quantum chemical method of Density Functional Theory (DFT) with B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) has been employed to study the structural and spectral properties of the compound. The electronic absorption spectrum was calculated using the time dependent functional theory (TDDFT) method. The most stable conformer of the title chalcone is identified from the computational results. Hirshfeld surface analysis with fingerprint plots has been used as a graphical tool for visualization and understanding of intermolecular interactions. Intermolecular C?H····O interaction observed stabilize the crystal structure, forming an infinite one dimensional column. The effect of this intermolecular interaction in the solid state can be seen in the difference between the experimental and the theoretically optimized geometrical parameters. The crystal is transparent in the entire visible region and absorptive in the UV region. Information about the size, shape, charge density distribution and site of chemical reactivity of the molecule has been obtained by mapping electron potential (MEP). The other molecular properties like charge transfer are explain using Mulliken population analysis. The antioxidant test indicated that the 2,3,4-trimethoxy substitution on the bromide chalcone to be one of the favorable modification to enhance its metal chelating activity.     

Simultaneous determination of preservatives (benzoic acid, sorbic acid, methylparaben and propylparaben) in foodstuffs using high-performance liquid chromatography

A reversed-phased HPLC method that allows the separation and simultaneous determination of the preservatives benzoic (BA) and sorbic acids (SA), methyl- (MP) and propylparabens (PP) is described. The separations were effected by using an initial mobile phase of methanol-acetate buffer (pH 4.4) (35:65) to elute BA, SA and MP and changing the mobile phase composition to methanol-acetate buffer (pH 4.4) (50:50) thereafter. The detector wavelength was set at 254 nm. Under these conditions, separation of the four components was achieved in less than 23 min. Analytical characteristics of the separation such as limit of detection, limit of quantification, linear range and reproducibility were evaluated. The developed method was applied to the determination of 67 foodstuffs (mainly imported), comprising soft drinks, jams, sauces, canned fruits/vegetables, dried vegetables/fruits and others. The range of preservatives found were from not detected (nd)--1260, nd--1390, nd--44.8 and nd--221 mg kg(-1) for BA, SA, MP and PP, respectively.     

Experimental and Mathematical Modelling of Factors Influencing Carbon Dioxide Absorption into the Aqueous Solution of Monoethanolamine and 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium Dibutylphosphate Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

This paper investigated the solubility of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in an aqueous solution of monoethanolamine (MEA) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dibutylphosphate ((BMIM)(DBP)) ionic liquid (IL) hybrid solvents. Aqueous solutions of MEA-(BMIM)(DBP) hybrid solvents containing different concentrations of (BMIM)(DBP) were prepared to exploit the amine’s reactive nature, combined with the IL’s non-volatile nature for CO₂ absorption. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was used to design the CO₂ solubility experiments and to investigate the effects of three independent factors on the solubility of CO₂ in the aqueous MEA-(BMIM)(DBP) hybrid solvent. The three independent factors were the concentration of (BMIM)(DBP) (0–20 wt.%), temperature (30 °C–60 °C) and pressure of CO₂ (2–30 bar). The experimental data were fitted to a quadratic model with a coefficient of determination (R²) value of 0.9791. The accuracy of the developed model was confirmed through additional experiments where the experimental values were found to be within the 95% confidence interval. From the RSM-generated model, the optimum conditions for CO₂ absorption in aqueous 30 wt% MEA-(BMIM)(DBP) were 20 wt% of (BMIM)(DBP), a temperature of 41.1 °C and a pressure of 30 bar.     

Biochemical and Biophysical Characterisation of the Hepatitis E Virus Guanine-7-Methyltransferase

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an understudied pathogen that causes infection through fecal contaminated drinking water and is prominently found in South Asian countries. The virus affects ~20 million people annually, leading to ~60,000 infections per year. The positive-stranded RNA genome of the HEV genotype 1 has four conserved open reading frames (ORFs), of which ORF1 encodes a polyprotein of 180 kDa in size, which is processed into four non-structural enzymes: methyltransferase (MTase), papain-like cysteine protease, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and RNA helicase. MTase is known to methylate guanosine triphosphate at the 5′-end of viral RNA, thereby preventing its degradation by host nucleases. In the present study, we cloned, expressed, and purified MTase spanning 33–353 amino acids of HEV genotype 1. The activity of the purified enzyme and the conformational changes were established through biochemical and biophysical studies. The binding affinity of MTase with magnesium ions (Mg²⁺) was studied by isothermal calorimetry (ITC), microscale thermophoresis (MST), far-UV CD analysis and, fluorescence quenching. In summary, a short stretch of nucleotides has been cloned, coding for the HEV MTase of 37 kDa, which binds Mg²⁺ and modulate its activity. The chelation of magnesium reversed the changes, confirming its role in enzyme activity.     

Synthesis of star-shaped polystyrenes with glucose- and maltohexaose-conjugated core through nitroxide-controlled free-radical polymerization

Coupling reactions of TEMPO-terminated polystyrene (PS-TEMPO) with divinylbenzene were performed in the presence of vinyl saccharides 1 , successfully producing star-shaped polystyrenes with glycoconjugated core 2 . Amphiphilic star-shaped polystyrenes with cores containing saccharide as hydrophilic segments 3 were obtained by the deacetylation of 2 , which exhibited an encapsulation ability toward methyl orange (MO) in chloroform. A positive Cotton effect was observed in the CD spectrum for the MO/ 3 in the adsorption area of MO, indicating that MO existed in a chiral segment, i.e., the glycoconjugated core.