Mass spectrometry-based chemical mapping and profiling toward molecular understanding of diseases in precision medicine

Precision medicine has been strongly promoted in recent years. It is used in clinical management for classifying diseases at the molecular level and for selecting the most appropriate drugs or treatments to maximize efficacy and minimize adverse effects. In precision medicine, an in-depth molecular understanding of diseases is of great importance. Therefore, in the last few years, much attention has been given to translating data generated at the molecular level into clinically relevant information. However, current developments in this field lack orderly implementation. For example, high-quality chemical research is not well integrated into clinical practice, especially in the early phase, leading to a lack of understanding in the clinic of the chemistry underlying diseases. In recent years, mass spectrometry (MS) has enabled significant innovations and advances in chemical research. As reported, this technique has shown promise in chemical mapping and profiling for answering “what”, “where”, “how many” and “whose” chemicals underlie the clinical phenotypes, which are assessed by biochemical profiling, MS imaging, molecular targeting and probing, biomarker grading disease classification, etc. These features can potentially enhance the precision of disease diagnosis, monitoring and treatment and thus further transform medicine. For instance, comprehensive MS-based biochemical profiling of ovarian tumors was performed, and the results revealed a number of molecular insights into the pathways and processes that drive ovarian cancer biology and the ways that these pathways are altered in correspondence with clinical phenotypes. Another study demonstrated that quantitative biomarker mapping can be predictive of responses to immunotherapy and of survival in the supposedly homogeneous group of breast cancer patients, allowing for stratification of patients. In this context, our article attempts to provide an overview of MS-based chemical mapping and profiling, and a perspective on their clinical utility to improve the molecular understanding of diseases for advancing precision medicine.

An overview of MS-based chemical mapping and profiling, indicating its contributions to the molecular understanding of diseases in precision medicine by answering "what", "where", "how many" and "whose” chemicals underlying clinical phenotypes.     

Theoretical investigation of novel silsesquioxane-supported Phillips-type catalyst by density functional theory (DFT) method

In spite of great commercial importance of the Phillips CrO_x/SiO₂ catalyst and long term research efforts, the precise physicochemical nature of active sites and polymerization mechanisms still remains unclear. The difficulties in a clear mechanistic understanding of this catalyst mainly come from the complexity of the surface chemistry of the amorphous silica gel support. In this work, novel silsesquioxane-supported Phillips Cr catalysts are utilized as realistic models of the industrial catalyst for theoretical investigation using the density functional theory (DFT) method in order to elucidate the effects of surface chemistry of silica gel in terms of supporting of chromium compounds and fluorination of the silica surface on the catalytic properties of the Phillips catalyst. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects with respect to various electronic properties and thermodynamic characteristics of the model catalysts were achieved. The future prospects of a state-of-the-art catalyst design and mechanistic approaches for the heterogeneous SiO₂-supported Phillips catalyst has been demonstrated. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

A metal nanoparticle-based supramolecular approach for aqueous biphasic reactions

beta-cyclodextrin immobilized on Pd nanoparticles was successfully employed as an efficient phase-transfer catalyst in aqueous biphasic hydrogenation reactions.     

One step isolation and purification of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin from Glycyrrhiza uralensis Risch. using high-speed counter-current chromatography

High-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) technique in semi-preparative scale has been successfully applied to the separation of bioactive flavonoid compounds, liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin in one step from the crude extract of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Risch. The HSCCC was performed using a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-acetonitrile-water (2:2:1:0.6:2, v/v). Yields of liquiritigenin (98.9% purity) and isoliquiritigenin (98.3% purity) obtained were 0.52% and 0.32%. Chemical structures of the purified liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin were identified by electrospray ionization-MS (ESI-MS) and NMR analysis.     

A theoretical study of bond selective photochemistry in CH2BrI

Bromoiodomethane photodissociation in the low-lying excited states has been characterized using unrestricted Hartree-Fock, configuration-interaction-singles, and complete active space self-consistent field calculations with the SDB-aug-cc-pVTZ, aug-cc-pVTZ, and 3-21g** basis sets. According to the results of the vertical excited energies and oscillator strengths of these low-lying excited states, bond selectivity is predicted. Subsequently, the minimum energy paths of the first excited singlet state and the third excited state for the dissociation reactions were calculated using the complete active space self-consistent field method with 3-21g** basis set. Good agreement is found between the calculations and experimental data. The relationships of excitations, the electronic structures at Franck-Condon points, and bond selectivity are discussed.     

CF3C(O)F水合作用的热力学和动力学理论研究

由于氟氟烃（CFCs）对大气臭氧层有破坏作用，人们拟以另外的化合物来代替它，CF3CX2H（X＝H，CI，F）可能是一类合适的取代物．但人们对它及其反应产物对大气的影响还不清楚.CFaC（0）F是CFaCX。H大气光氧化过程的终产物之一[1－3］，其在大气中的后继反应行为将直接关系到CF2     

Cyclocondensation of 3-amino-2-iminonaphtho[1,2-d]-thiazole with α-ketocarboxylic acid derivatives: Synthesis of 2-substituted 3-Oxo-3H-naphtho[1′,2′:4,5]thiazolo-[3,2-b][1,2,4]triazines as potential anti-HIV agents

The cyclocondensation of 3-amino-2-iminonaphtho[1,2-d]thiazole ( 1 ) with a series of α-keto mono- and dicarboxylic acid derivatives 5a-i under different conditions was investigated. When the experiments were performed by refluxing in glacial acetic acid, the corresponding cyclized products, 2-substituted 3-oxo-3H-naphtho[1′,2′:4,5]thiazolo[3,2-b][1,2,4]triazines 4 were obtained in fair to good yields. On the other hand, when the reaction was conducted in boiling ethanol, it gave only the open chain condensates 6 , or in rare cases, together with minor amount of 4 . Since the intermediates 6 exist as mixture of both E- and Z-isomers, cyclization through heating was found insufficient. In any event representative compounds 4b,g,i have been evaluated for anti-HIV activity, but none of them were active.     

SARS-CoV protease inhibitors design using virtual screening method from natural products libraries

Two natural products databases, the marine natural products database (MNPD) and the traditional Chinese medicines database (TCMD), were used to find novel structures of potent SARS-CoV protease inhibitors through virtual screening. Before the procedure, the databases were filtered by Lipinski's ROF and Xu's extension rules. The results were analyzed by statistic methods to eliminate the bias in target-based database screening toward higher molecular weight compounds for enhancing the hit rate. Eighteen lead compounds were recommended by the screening procedure. They were useful for experimental scientists in prioritizing drug candidates and studying the interaction mechanism. The binding mechanism was also analyzed between the best screening compound and the SARS protein.     

Efficient light harvesting and energy transfer in organic-inorganic hybrid multichromophoric materials

Thin films of silica hybrid materials consisting of two to three covalently bound organic chromophores at different ratios were conveniently synthesized and fabricated. The photophysical properties of these materials have been studied. The fluorescence spectra reveal complete fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from donor to acceptor, and the light-harvesting ability of these hybrid materials increases with increasing the molar fraction of donor chromophore. In a three-chromophore system, the energy is transferred from 300 to 530 nm successfully. Time-resolved fluorescence experiments are employed to elucidate the average rates and efficiencies (84-97%) of energy transfer in these organic/inorganic hybrid systems. The hybrid materials have been shown to provide antenna effect to facilitate energy transfer and light harvesting.     

Aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions of N-(benzylidene)polyfluoroanilines with methyl acrylate and acrylonitrile

Aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions of N-(benzylidene)polyfluoroanilines 1 with methyl acrylate or acrylonitrile were studied. It was found that Lewis base, solvent and reaction temperature can significantly affect the reaction. Using 3-hydroxyquinuclidine (3-HQD) as a Lewis base in the reactions of 1 with methyl acrylate in DMF, the normal aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts 3 were formed in moderate to excellent yields. For the reactions of 1 with acrylonitrile, 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) is the best Lewis base giving the corresponding aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts 4 as the sole product in good to moderate yield. However, upon treatment of 1 with acrolein 2c, the corresponding reaction did not occur even in the presence of a variety of catalysts.