Carboxymethyl chitosan-coated capillary and its application in CE of proteins

A hydrophilic basic polysaccharide, carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) as a capillary coating is presented with a simple preparation procedure. The CMC-coated capillary showed a long lifetime of more than 100 runs, and had good tolerance to some organic solvents, 0.1 M HCl, 0.1 M NaOH, and 5 M urea. The run-to-run, day-to-day, and capillary-to-capillary RSDs for the CMC-coated capillary were all below 2.0% for the determination of EOF. Moreover, the coatings with different concentrations and molecular weights of CMC were also investigated. The CMC-coated capillary was successfully applied to separate basic proteins and recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO). Furthermore, several experimental parameters, such as the concentration and pH of the running buffer, temperature, and applied voltage, were optimized for the separation of rhEPO glycoforms. Comparison of an uncoated capillary with chitosan- and CMC-coated capillaries for the separation of rhEPO glycoforms was also discussed. The results demonstrated that rhEPO glycoforms can be well separated by a CMC-coated capillary within 8 min with good reproducibility and resolution. Finally, the volatile BGE HAc-NH4Ac was utilized to separate rhEPO for its further application with CE-MS, achieving a satisfactory result.     

Controllable synthesis of ZnxCd1-xS@ZnO core-shell nanorods with enhanced photocatalytic activity

We report the synthesis of Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S@ZnO nanorod arrays via a facile two-step process and the implementation of these core-shell nanorods as an environmental friendly and recyclable photocatalyst for methyl orange degradation. The band gap of Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S@ZnO core-shell nanorods can be readily tunable by adjusting the ratio of Zn/Cd during the synthesis. These Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S@ZnO core-shell nanorods exhibit a high photocatalytic activity and good stability in the degradation of the methyl orange. Moreover, these films grown on FTO substrates make the collection and recycle of the photocatalyst easier. These findings may open new opportunities for the design of effective, stable, and easy-recyclable photocatalytic materials.     

One‐Step Synthesis of Folic Acid Protected Gold Nanoparticles and Their Receptor‐Mediated Intracellular Uptake

We report here a facile method to obtain folic acid (FA)‐protected gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) by heating an aqueous solution of HAuCl₄/FA in which FA acts as both the reducing and stabilizing agent. The successful formation of FA‐protected Au NPs is demonstrated by UV/Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected‐area electron diffraction (SAED), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The intracellular uptake of these nanoparticles is facilitated by HeLa cells overexpressing the folate reporter, which itself is significantly inhibited by free FA in a competitive assay as quantified by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP‐MS). This simple one‐step approach affords a new perspective for creating functional nanomaterials, and the resulting biocompatible, functional Au NPs may find some prospective applications in various biomedical fields.     

Electric modeling and characterization of pulsed high‐voltage nanoelectrospray ionization sources by a miniature ion trap mass spectrometer

A better understanding of nanoelectrospray ionization (nano‐ESI) would be beneficial in further improving the performances of nano‐ESI. In this work, the pulsed high‐voltage (HV) nano‐ESI has been electrically modeled and then systematically characterized by both voltage‐current and mass spectrometry measurements. First, the equivalent resistance of a nano‐ESI source changes with respect to both emitter tip diameter and the HV applied. Increased voltage could improve both spray current and ionization efficiency of the pulsed HV nano‐ESI. Compared with conventional DC HV method, a pulsed HV has less heating effect on the capillary tip and thus allowing the application of a much higher voltage onto a nano‐ESI source. As a result, a pulsed HV nano‐ESI could further boost the ionization efficiency of nano‐ESI by employing even higher voltages than conventional DC nano‐ESI sources.     

Microbial carbonylation and hydroxylation of 20(R)-panaxadiol by Aspergillus niger

20(R)-panaxadiol (PD) was metabolised by the fungus Aspergillus niger AS 3.3926 to its C-3 carbonylated metabolite and five other hydroxylated metabolites (1–6). Their structures were elucidated as 3-oxo-20(R)-panaxadiol (1), 3-oxo-7β-hydroxyl- 20(R)-panaxadiol (2), 3-oxo-7β,23α-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (3), 3,12-dioxo- 7β,23β-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (4), 3-oxo-1α,7β-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (5) and 3-oxo-7β,15β-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (6) by spectroscopic analysis. Among them, compounds 2–6 were new compounds. Pharmacological studies revealed that compound 6 exhibited significant anti-hepatic fibrosis activity.     

离子液体在气相色谱固定相中的应用

本文综述了离子液体在气相色谱固定相中的发展过程。为提高固定相的使用温度、选择性和色谱柱效,离子液体先后经历多次制备方法的改善,本文主要介绍了小分子离子液体、大体积离子液体、柱内烯基咪唑聚合离子液体、物理混配离子液体和化学键合离子液体等非手性离子液体的合成进展;同时综述了由手性氨基酸、手性胺和键合环糊精合成的手性离子液体的研究进展;并比较各种离子液体用作色谱固定相时的稳定性及选择性差异。另外,对离子液体在二维气相色谱和快速气相色谱中的应用扩展作了总结,并展望离子液体作为新型分离材料在气相色谱固定相中的研究和应用前景。     

Anti-fibrosis attributes: UHPLC-MS/MS-based pharmacokinetics profiling of a novel autotaxin inhibitor with excellent in vivo efficacy in rat

3,4-Difluorobenzyl(1-ethyl-5-(4-((4-hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)-methyl)thiazol-2-yl)-1H-indol-3-yl)carbamate (NAI59), a small molecule with outstanding therapeutic effectiveness to anti-pulmonary fibrosis, was developed as an autotaxin inhibitor candidate compound. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics and plasma protein binding of NAI59, a UPLC–MS/MS method was developed to quantify NAI59 in plasma and phosphate-buffered saline. The calibration curve linearity ranged from 9.95 to 1990.00 ng/mL in plasma. The accuracy was −6.8 to 5.9%, and the intra- and inter-day precision was within 15%. The matrix effect and recovery, as well as dilution integrity, were within the criteria. The chromatographic and mass spectrometric conditions were also feasible to determine phosphate-buffered saline samples, and it has been proved that this method exhibits good precision and accuracy in the range of 9.95–497.50 ng/mL in phosphate-buffered saline. This study is the first to determine the pharmacokinetics, absolute bioavailability, and plasma protein binding of NAI59 in rats using this established method. Therefore, the pharmacokinetic profiles of NAI59 showed a dose-dependent relationship after oral administration, and the absolute bioavailability in rats was 6.3%. In addition, the results of protein binding showed that the combining capacity of NAI59 with plasma protein attained 90% and increased with the increase in drug concentration.     

Recent advances in microbial fuel cell-based toxicity biosensors: Strategies for enhanced toxicity response

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been extensively studied as self-powered toxicity biosensors; however, their applications are limited by the relatively poor toxicity responses. The toxicity responses are known to be related to the factors such as the resistance of species to toxicants, the bioavailability of toxicants and the type of sensing elements. Accordingly, some strategies have already been proposed to enhance the toxicity responses in the past several years, including the external resistance tuning, quorum sensing effect, shear stress control, nutrient level control, electrode material choice, sensing element choice, and cell configuration design. This work introduces and discusses these strategies, and the suggestion for future work is also provided finally.     

Basis Sets Dependency in Constructing Spectroscopy-Accuracy Ab Initio Global Electric Dipole Moment Functions

Recently, more attention have been paid on the construction of dipole moment functions (DMF) using theoretical methods. However, the computational methods to construct DMFs are not validated as much as those for potential energy surfaces do. In this letter, using Ar...He as an example, we tested how spectroscopyaccuracy DMFs can be constructed using ab initio methods. We especially focused on the basis set dependency in this scenario, i.e., the convergence of DMF with the sizes of basis sets, basis set superposition error, and mid-bond functions. We also tested the explicitly correlated method, which converges with smaller basis sets than the conventional methods do. This work can serve as a pictorial sample of all these computational technologies behaving in the context of constructing DMFs.     

基于ZIF-8/PAN复合薄膜的柔性丙酮气体传感器

ZIF-8是一种Zn基金属有机骨架材料, 可以吸附丙酮气体从而作为电容式丙酮传感器的气敏材料, 然而ZIF-8的传统使用形式为粉末态, 这导致其不能成为具备柔性的整体, 从而限制了传感器的柔性. 结合包埋种子和二次生长法将ZIF-8与纳米纤维结合成纤维型柔性材料, 并将其作为气敏层制备了柔性电容式丙酮气体传感器. 该传感器在9种常见挥发性有机化合物中表现出良好的选择性, 对250~2000 cm³/m³的丙酮气体具有灵敏的响应、良好的循环响应及长期稳定性. 值得注意的是该柔性传感器不仅在室温下进行传感, 而且在弯折180°的状态下对丙酮气体的响应值与不弯折(0°)状态下几乎一致, 在200次以内的180°弯折-恢复后同样表现出了传感性能的稳定, 表明了其在柔性传感器方面的潜力.