Construction of two fluorescence‐labeled non‐combined DNA index system miniSTR multiplex systems to analyze degraded DNA samples in the Chinese Han Population

MiniSTR loci have been demonstrated to be an effective approach in recovering genetic information from degraded specimens, because of the reduced PCR amplicon sizes which improved the PCR efficiency. Eight non‐combined DNA index system miniSTR loci suitable for the Chinese Han Population were analyzed in 300 unrelated Chinese Han individuals using two novel five fluorescence‐labeled miniSTR multiplex systems(multiplex I: D10S1248, D2S441, D1S1677 and D9S2157; multiplex II: D9S1122, D10S1435, D12ATA63, D2S1776 and Amelogenin). The allele frequency distribution and forensic parameters in the Chinese Han Population were reported in this article. The Exact Test demonstrated that all loci surveyed here were found to be no deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. The accumulated power of discrimination and power of exclusion for the eight loci were 0.999999992 and 0.98, respectively. The highly degraded DNA from artificially degraded samples and the degraded forensic case work samples was assessed with the two miniSTR multiplex systems, and the results showed that the systems were quite effective.     

Mapping of phosphorylation sites in human MSK1 activated by a novel interaction with MRK‐β

The desire to map reliable phosphorylation signaling network has motivated the development of high‐performance techniques. Targeted biochemical studies and updated methods employing MS techniques are most used in mapping the phosphorylation sites and verifying novel interactions of kinases. Previously, we have established a novel method to efficiently facilitate more comprehensive, accurate phosphorylation site mapping of individual phosphoproteins by using combination of multiple stage MS analysis with target‐decoy database search against the much smaller targeted database. In this study, by applying this method, we have identified the phosphorylation sites in human MSK1 mitogen‐ and stress‐activated protein kinase 1), which has been proved to be a multi‐phosphorylated kinase that plays key roles in various cell functions, activated by a novel interaction with MRK‐β. The results show that this method can find out not only those previously identified active sites in MSK1, but also some novel phosphorylated sites, which correlates with biochemical evidence that, besides p38 and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase, MRK‐β could also activate MSK1 through direct interaction. Hence, we conclude this method is sensitive and reliable as expected and it can be further combined with automated screening and biochemical study in efficiently building up a more comprehensive phosphoprotein network.     

Molecularly imprinted polymer coated on stainless steel fiber for solid-phase microextraction of chloroacetanilide herbicides in soybean and corn

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) with metolachlor as template was firstly coated on stainless steel fiber through chemical bonding strategy to solve the fragility problem of silica fiber substrate for solid-phase microextraction. The surface pretreatment of stainless steel fiber and the polymerization conditions were investigated systematically to enhance the preparation feasibility and MIP coating performance, and then a porous and highly cross-linked MIP coating with 14.8-μm thickness was obtained with over 200 times re-usability which was supported by non-fragile stainless steel fiber adoption. The MIP coating possessed specific selectivities to metolachlor, its metabolites and other chloroacetanilide herbicides with the factors of 1.1–4.6. Good extraction capacities of metolachlor, propisochlor and butachlor were found with MIP coating under quick adsorption and desorption kinetics, and the detection limits of 3.0, 9.6 and 38 μg L⁻¹ were achieved, respectively. Moreover, the MIP-coated stainless steel fiber was evaluated for trace metolachlor, propisochlor and butachlor extraction in the spiked soybean and corn samples, and the enrichment factors of 54–60, 27–31 and 15–20 were obtained, respectively.     

Identification of chemicals and their metabolites from PHY906, a Chinese medicine formulation,in the plasma of a patient treated with irinotecan and PHY906 using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS)

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is increasingly being used in combination with Western medicine. In general, TCM is comprised of multiple components in sharp contrast to Western medicine, where a single active chemical is used. Presently, there are no well-established standards for most of the chemical compounds of TCM and their respective metabolites. Moreover, there are no formal analytical methods for the identification of these chemicals, especially in trace amounts. The ability to measure the pharmacokinetic behaviors of chemicals and their metabolites from these herbal formulations are critical in understanding of the action of TCM. This paper describes the use of LC/MS/MS along with enzyme treatments and n-octanol/water partition coefficient, to investigate the chemical components of PHY906 and their metabolites in the plasma of a patient with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with irinotecan and PHY906. The chemicals from an aqueous extract of PHY906 and the plasma from a patient was prepared and separated on an Agilent ZORBAX-SB C₁₈ column, and eluted with acetonitrile/0.05% (v/v) formic acid. From the PHY906 aqueous extract, a total of 57 compounds and 27 metabolites were identified and tentatively assigned structures based on their identified mass spectrometry, enzyme digestion and n-octanol/water partition coefficient. In contrast, analysis of patient plasma identified only 33 chemicals and new metabolites. These findings demonstrated that LC/MS/MS was and effective and reliable method for studying the parent chemicals of the Chinese herbal medicine PHY906 and their metabolites in a patient with metastatic colorectal cancer.     

Ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction for the determination of six pyrethroids in river water

A simple ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method combined with liquid chromatography was developed for the preconcentration and determination of six pyrethroids in river water samples. The procedure was based on a ternary solvent system to formatting tiny droplets of extractant in sample solution by dissolving appropriate amounts of water-immiscible extractant (tetrachloromethane) in watermiscible dispersive solvent (acetone). Various parameters that affected the extraction efficiency (such as type and volume of extraction and dispersive solvent, extraction time, ultrasonic time, and centrifuging time) were evaluated. Under the optimum condition, good linearity was obtained in a range of 0.00059–1.52 mg L⁻¹ for all analytes with the correlation coefficient (r²) > 0.999. Intra-assay and inter-assay precision evaluated as the relative standard deviation (RSD) were less than 3.4 and 8.9%. The recoveries of six pyrethroids at three spiked levels were in the range of 86.2–109.3% with RSD of less than 8.7%. The enrichment factors for the six pyrethroids were ranged from 767 to 1033 folds.     

“Clickable” affinity ligands for effective separation of glycoproteins

In this paper, we present a new modular approach to immobilize boronic acid ligands that can offer effective separation of glycoproteins. A new “clickable” boronic acid ligand was synthesized by introducing a terminal acetylene group into commercially available 3-aminophenyl boronic acid. The clickable ligand, 3-(prop-2-ynyloxycarbonylamino)phenylboronic acid (2) could be easily coupled to azide-functionalized hydrophilic Sepharose using Cu(I)-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction under mild condition. Compared to other boronic acid affinity gels, the new affinity gel displayed superior effectiveness in separating model glycoproteins (ovalbumin and RNase B) from closely related bovine serum albumin and RNase A in the presence of crude Escherichia coli proteins. Because of the simplicity of the immobilization through “click chemistry”, the new ligand 2 is expected to not only offer improved glycoprotein separation in other formats, but also act as a useful building block to develop new chemical sensors for analysis of other glycan compounds.     

铁苯基膦配合物均相催化乙酰丙酸乙酯与甲酸反应转化为γ-戊内酯的分子机制

本文基于密度泛函理论,计算了Fe(CF3SO3)2/PP3催化乙酰丙酸乙酯与甲酸反应转化为γ-戊内酯的反应机理。分析了单重态和三重态反应路径的热力学和动力学性质,结果表明除了预催化剂活化出现势能面交叉外,反应主要在三重态势能面上进行,包括以下几个步骤：甲酸盐配位方式重置,β-H消除得到活性催化剂[FeH(PP3)]+,接着乙酰丙酸乙酯的羰基碳和羰基氧接连被质子化得到中间体4-羟基戊酸乙酯,最后质子化的反离子CF3SO3H作为氢转移梭子协助分子内脱醇—关环生成目标产物γ-戊内酯。进一步探讨不同金属苯基膦配合物的催化活性,证实金属适宜的配位能力是筛选催化剂的关键。理论计算结果为优化设计高性能的生物质转化催化剂提供一定的理论指导。     

Carboxymethylchitosan covalently modified capillary column for open tubular capillary electrochromatography of basic proteins and opium alkaloids

A novel open tubular (OT) column covalently modified with hydrophilic polysaccharide, carboxymethylchitosan (CMC) as stationary phase has been developed, and employed for the separations of basic proteins and opium alkaloids by capillary electrochromatography (CEC). With the procedures including the silanization of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTS) and the combination of glutaraldehyde with amino-silylated silica surface and CMC, CMC was covalently bonded on the capillary inner wall and exhibited a remarkable tolerance and chemical stability against 0.1 mol/L HCl, 0.1 mol/L NaOH or some organic solvents. By varying the pH values of running buffer, a cathodic or anodic EOF could be gained in CMC modified column. With anodic EOF mode (pH<4.3), favorable separations of basic proteins (trypsin, ribonuclease A, lysozyme and cytochrome C) were successfully achieved with high column efficiencies ranging from 97,000 to 182,000 plates/m, and the undesired adsorptions of basic proteins on the inter-wall of capillary could be avoided. Good repeatability was gained with RSD of the migration time less than 1.3% for run-to-run (n=5) and less than 3.2% for day-to-day (n=3), RSD of peak area was less than 5.6% for run-to-run (n=5) and less than 8.8% for day-to-day (n=3). With cathodic EOF mode (pH>4.3), four opium alkaloids were also baseline separated in phosphate buffer (50 mmol/L, pH 6.0) with column efficiencies ranging from 92,000 to 132,000 plates/m. CMC-bonded OT capillary column might be used as an alternative medium for the further analysis of basic proteins and alkaline analytes.     

富氧条件下氢气选择催化还原氮氧化物研究的进展

 富氧条件下, 氢气选择催化还原 (H2-SCR) 是消除氮氧化物的有效方法. 本文介绍了 H2-SCR 反应特点及其研究现状, 重点总结和评述了应用于 H2-SCR 反应的氧化物和分子筛负载的 Pt 或 Pd 催化剂, 以及 H2-SCR 反应机理, 并展望了今后 H2-SCR 研究的方向.     

水滑石负载钯催化剂上的醇无氧脱氢反应

 研究了多种载体负载 Pd 催化剂上苯甲醇无氧脱氢反应. 结果发现, 以兼具较强酸性和碱性的水滑石 (HT) 为载体时, Pd 催化剂具有优异的苯甲醇转化活性和苯甲醛选择性, 当 Pd 含量为 0.32%~0.55% 时催化性能最佳. Pd/HT 催化剂可重复使用, 且对于含推电子取代基的芳香醇、2-噻吩甲醇、α,β-不饱和醇与环状脂肪醇等的直接脱氢反应均具有较好催化性能. HT 表面的 Pd(II) 物种反应后转变为平均粒径为 2.0~2.5 nm 的 Pd 纳米粒子或纳米簇. 具有较高分散度的 Pd(II) 物种易转变为较小的 Pd 纳米粒子, 从而具有较佳的催化性能. 本文推测, 催化剂表面的碱性位可促进苯甲醇 O–H 键的活化, 形成 Pd-苯甲氧基中间体, 该中间体进一步脱氢生成苯甲醛和 Pd-H 物种; 而催化剂表面的质子酸位可与 Pd-H 作用, 促进 H2 的脱除.