Monitoring of the principal carbonyl compounds involved in malolactic fermentation of wine by solid-phase microextraction and positive ion chemical ionization GC/MS analysis

A new method has been developed to determine acetaldehyde, 2,3-butanedione (diacetyl) and 3-hydroxy-2-butanone (acetoin) in wine by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and positive ion chemical ionization GC/MS analysis of O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)-hydroxylamine (PFBOA) derivatives. For SPME, a 65-microm PEG/DVB fibre was used; chemical ionization was performed with methane as reagent gas. The best analysis-time/sensitivity compromise was to perform the PFBOA reaction at 50 degrees C for 20 min, followed by 5-min SPME at the same temperature. Quantitative analysis was performed in SCAN mode using o-chlorobenzaldehyde as internal standard (IS), on the signal of the [M + H](+) ion at m/z 240 for acetaldehyde, 266 for acetoin (corresponding to the [M + H - 18](+) ion), 282 for diacetyl (protonated mono-derivatized compound), and 336 for IS. The accuracy and repeatability of the method were suitable for the study aims, and linearity was good in the range of concentration studied, with correlation coefficients of calibration curves 0.997, 0.998 and 0.988 for acetaldehyde, diacetyl and acetoin respectively. Due to the higher polarity of acetoin with respect to other two compounds, lower sensitivity in the detection of this compound was observed. By following the variation of the three carbonyl compounds, malolactic fermentations (MLF) were monitored in Merlot wines and this was carried out in the laboratory by two different bacteria strains.     

Moment Maps and Equivariant Volumes

The study of the volume of big line bundles on a complex projective manifold M has been one of the main veins in the recent interest in the asymptotic properties of linear series. In this article, we consider an equivariant version of this problem, in the presence of a linear action of a reductive group on M.     

Fast determination of the total free resveratrol content in wine by direct-exposure-probe, positive-ion chemical ionization and collision-induced-dissociation mass spectrometry

In the present work, a fast method has been developed for the determination of total free resveratrol in wine extracts by positive-ion chemical ionization using methane as reagent gas and direct introduction of the sample into the mass spectrometer. Quantitative analysis is performed using 4',5,7-trihydroxyflavone as internal standard, by recording the product ions at m/z 135 for resveratrol and m/z 153 for the internal standard, both generated by collision-induced dissociation experiments on the related [M+H](+) ions. The method showed sufficient repeatability and satisfactory linearity in the range of concentration studied. Alternatively, because of the marked effect of matrices on the compounds released in the vaporization step, quantitative analysis was performed by addition of standard resveratrol to the sample, and the total free resveratrol content extrapolated from the calibration curve. Calibration curves for three different wine extracts had correlation coefficients between 0.91 and 0.99, and total free resveratrol contents between 11.8 and 17.2 mg/L were found. This method enabled us to determine the resveratrol-potential of wine within a few minutes, thereby overcoming the time- and solvent-consuming procedures needed for chromatographic methods.     

YOYO as a Dye to Track Penetration of LK15 DNA Complexes in Spheroids: Use and Limits

To elucidate the reasons underlying the poor penetration of non-viral vectors in tissues, relating transport properties to physico-chemical parameters of vectors may be crucial. These properties can be influenced by the presence of multiples labels that are used. Therefore utilizing a vector with minimum of labels preferably not more than one is important to studying penetration in tissues. The cell impermeant bisintercalating dye YOYO-1 was found suitable to both monitor the formation of complexes between DNA and an amphipathic peptide LK15 and, to track their penetration in HCT116 spheroids by confocal microscopy. The results revealed a limited decrease of fluorescence ascribed to the high affinity of YOYO-1 to bind DNA. The residual fluorescence of complexes can be exploited to monitor penetration into spheroids, after correction for YOYO-1 attenuation, and to revealing hyaluronidase-induced reduced binding. Hence high affinity dyes such as YOYO-1 with inefficiently quenched fluorescence may be important to establish a relation between novel medicines characteristics and penetration in tissues.     

Neuropeptide delivery to the brain: a von Willebrand factor signal peptide to direct neuropeptide secretion

Background  

Multiple neuropeptides, sometimes with opposing functions, can be produced from one precursor gene. To study the roles of the different neuropeptides encoded by one large precursor we developed a method to overexpress minigenes and establish local secretion.