AutoScan: an automated workstation for rapid determination of mass and tandem mass spectrometry conditions for quantitative bioanalytical mass spectrometry

An automated flow injection analysis (FIA) mass spectrometry system (AutoScan) was developed to allow rapid unattended determination of optimal conditions during mass (ms) and tandem mass spectrometry (ms/ms) on new chemical entities (NCEs) arranged in 96-well plates. The 96-well plate is placed on the deck of a modified Gilson Multiprobe autosampler for injection into a PE Sciex API 2000 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. A customized software interface is used to create the necessary scan experiments by associating each 96-well plate of NCEs to be scanned with an index file containing data on the identity of each analyte and its expected molecular weight. Analytes are injected four at a time into a custom injection manifold and conventional mass spectra are acquired in both polarities (+/-) using an alternating positive/negative Q1 scan function. The software determines the optimal polarity and definitive precursor ion for all analytes and uses the results to build the injection sequence for product ion scanning. The samples are automatically re-injected under MS/MS conditions, and product ion scans that loop among different collision energies are collected for each analyte. The resulting data are processed automatically and the optimal MS/MS transitions for each analyte are selected. A color-coded graphical interface facilitates data review. Any unusual ion transitions or transposition errors made during plate preparation are noted and corrected. Complete MS and MS/MS conditions are obtained for 96 compounds in about one hour and the resulting data are available for download as sample control injection sequence files.     

A complete classification of the two-point extensions of a multidimensional bernoulli shift

A theorem is proven which gives five characterizations of a multidimensional Bernoulli shift. The two-point extensions of a multidimensional Bernoulli shift are classified completely. If such an extension is weakly mixing then it must be Bernoulli; otherwise, it is isomorphic to one of 2 ⁿ specific trivial extensions. This result is extended to multidimensional Bernoulli flows and Bernoulli shifts of infinite entropy. This work supported in part by N.S.F. Grant DMS-85-04701 and by the University of Maryland Department of Mathematics.     

Neutron total and scattering cross sections of 6Li in the low-MeV range

Neutron total cross sections of ⁶Li are measured at intervals of ? 10 keV from ≈ 0.1 to 4.8 MeV with precisions of ≈ 1 to 3 %. Differential elastic scattering cross sections are measured at intervals of ? 100 keV from 1.5 to 4.0 MeV at 10 or more scattering angles distributed between ≈ 20 and 160 deg. Differential inelastic scattering cross sections are measured at selected angles in the energy range 3.5 to 4.0 MeV. The experimental results are analyzed in terms of R-matrix theory and the model parameters used to deduce the ${}^6\text{Li(n}\text{,α)}$ cross sections. The implications of the measurements and their interpretation on the level structure of ⁷Li and the reaction mechanisms are discussed.     

D-Fructose-6-phosphate aldolase-catalyzed one-pot synthesis of iminocyclitols

A one-pot chemoenzymatic method for the synthesis of a variety of new iminocyclitols from readily available, non-phosphorylated donor substrates has been developed. The method utilizes the recently discovered fructose-6-phosphate aldolase (FSA), which is functionally distinct from known aldolases in its tolerance of different donor substrates as well as acceptor substrates. Kinetic studies were performed with dihydroxyacetone (DHA), the presumed endogenous substrate for FSA, as well as hydroxy acetone (HA) and 1-hydroxy-2-butanone (HB) as donor substrates, in each case using glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate as acceptor substrate. Remarkably, FSA used the three donor substrates with equal efficiency, with kcat/KMvalues of 33, 75, and 20 M-1 s-1, respectively. This level of donor substrate tolerance is unprecedented for an aldolase. Furthermore, DHA, HA, and HB were accepted as donors in FSA-catalyzed aldol reactions with a variety of azido- and Cbz-amino aldehyde acceptors. The broad substrate tolerance of FSA and the ability to circumvent the need for phosphorylated substrates allowed for one-pot synthesis of a number of known and novel iminocyclitols in good yields, and in a very concise fashion. New iminocyclitols were assayed as inhibitors against a panel of glycosidases. Compounds 15 and 16 were specific alpha-mannosidase inhibitors, and 24 and 26 were potent and selective inhibitors of beta-N-acetylglucosaminidases in the submicromolar range. Facile access to these compounds makes them attractive core structures for further inhibitor optimization.     

Syntheses of [F5TeNH3][AsF6], [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6], and F5TeNF2 and characterization by multi-NMR and Raman spectroscopy and by electronic structure calculations: the X-ray crystal structures of alpha- and beta-F5TeNH2, [F5TeNH3][AsF6], and [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6

The salt, [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6], has been synthesized in the natural abundance and 99.5% 15N-enriched forms. The F5TeN(H)Xe+ cation has been obtained as the product of the reactions of [F5TeNH3][AsF6] with XeF2 (HF and BrF5 solvents) and F5TeNH2 with [XeF][AsF6] (HF solvent) and characterized in solution by 129Xe, 19F, 125Te, 1H, and 15N NMR spectroscopy at -60 to -30 degrees C. The orange [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6] and colorless [F5TeNH3][AsF6] salts were crystallized as a mixture from HF solvent at -35 degrees C and were characterized by Raman spectroscopy at -165 degrees C and by X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure of the low-temperature phase, alpha-F5TeNH2, was obtained by crystallization from liquid SO2 between -50 and -70 degrees C and is fully ordered. The high-temperature phase, beta-F5TeNH2, was obtained by sublimation at room temperature and exhibits a 6-fold disorder. Decomposition of [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6] in the solid state was rapid above -30 degrees C. The decomposition of F5TeN(H)Xe+ in HF and BrF5 solution at -33 degrees C proceeded by fluorination at nitrogen to give F5TeNF2 and Xe gas. Electronic structure calculations at the Hartree-Fock and local density-functional theory levels were used to calculate the gas-phase geometries, charges, Mayer bond orders, and Mayer valencies of F5TeNH2, F5TeNH3+, F5TeN(H)Xe+, [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6], F5TeNF2, and F5TeN2- and to assign their experimental vibrational frequencies. The F5TeN(H)Xe+ and the ion pair, [F5TeN(H)Xe][AsF6], systems were also calculated at the MP2 and gradient-corrected (B3LYP) levels.     

Effects of conformation on the stereochemistry of solvent attack on benzylic beta-hydroxycarbocations: mechanisms of epoxide hydrolysis reactions

The rates and products from the acid-catalyzed and the pH-independent reactions of two diastereomeric 6-methoxy-trans-1,2,3,4,4a,10a-hexahydrophenanthrene 9,10-oxides (5b and 7b), along with their cis and trans chlorohydrins, have been determined in dioxane/water solutions. The mechanisms of the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of 5b and 7b involve rate-limiting formation of benzylic carbocations (6b and 8b), which have sufficient lifetimes to be trapped by azide ion. Each carbocation is stabilized by the 6-methoxy group and held in single conformation by the adjacent trans-fused cyclohexane ring. The stereochemistry of the attack of water on each carbocation is independent of whether the precursor is an epoxide, a cis chlorohydrin, or a trans chlorohydrin, and the major diol hydrolysis product from each compound results from the axial attack of a solvent molecule on the carbocation intermediate. The hydrolysis of the trans chlorohydrin formed from the reaction of 5b with HCl exhibits a common ion rate depression. The major product from the pH-independent reaction of 5b is a trans diol, and the major product from the pH-independent reaction of 7b is an isomeric ketone. The rate of the pH-independent reaction of 7b is >10(4) times faster than that of 5b.