On-line Separation and Detection of Peptides by Capillary Electrophoresis / Electrospray FT-ICR-MS

Recently, capillary electrophoresis/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (CE/ESI- MS) has been rapidly developed as a powerful analytical tool for charged species ranged from small molecules such as carboxylic acids1, phenolic compounds2, metal species3, tetramines4, herbicides5, drugs and drug metabolites6 to peptides and proteins7, 8. The ESI mode has proven to be sensitive, versatile and relatively easy to use in combination with CE. CE confers rapid analysis and efficient separ…     

Three New Triterpenoids from Lycopodium japonicum Thunb

Three new triterpenoids, (3β,8β,14α,21α)‐26,27‐dinoronocerane‐3,8,14,21‐tetrol ( 1 ), (3β,8β,14α,21β)‐26,27‐dinoronocerane‐3,8,14,21‐tetrol ( 2 ), and lycopodiin A ( 3 ), together with four known compounds, lycoclavanol ( 4 ), lycoclaninol ( 5 ), α‐onocerin ( 6 ), and 3‐epilycoclavanol ( 7 ), were isolated from Lycopodium japonicum Thunb (Lycopodiaceae). Their structures were established by means of spectroscopic analyses. Compounds 3 and 7 showed moderate antitumor activity. Compounds 4 and 6 exhibited acetylcholinesterase inhibition activity.     

“双一流”背景下高等农业院校有机化学基础课程教学新模式的构建及实践

The crop science of Sichuan Agricultural University is an authorized first-class discipline. As the strategic supporting department for innovative talent cultivation in agriculture and forestry major, we are facing a long-term challenge in reforming the teaching mode for basic course-organic chemistry and cultivating talented students with solid basic knowledge and strong sense of innovation. Herein a thorough survey was performing to establish the executable teaching programs for this course during the "Double-First Class Universities Plan" period. A multidimensional teaching resource library for organic chemistry course was also constructed. The new classroom teaching mode "Interest cultivation-Creative thought development-Autonomous and Cooperative learning", along with a stepwise practice teaching mode "Foundation skills-Integrated application-Innovative trial" was proposed and practiced among thirty-five majors including agriculture, forestry and veterinary, to improve the quality for innovative talent cultivation and support our first-class discipline construction. This research could probably serve as a reference for congeneric agricultural university.     

Quantitative analysis of 23-hydroxybetulinic acid in mouse plasma using electrospray liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

23-Hydroxybetulinic acid is a newly isolated derivative of betulinic acid. The agent exhibits potential anti-tumor activity and functions in this regard via apoptosis. In support of pharmacokinetic and toxicological evaluations, a new assay based on liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) was developed for the quantitative analysis of 23-hydroxybetulinic acid. Sample preparation consisted of extraction of the plasma by the addition of methylene chloride followed by centrifugation. Aliquots of the supernatant were analyzed using an isocratic reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system coupled to a negative ion electrospray mass spectrometer. Molecules of 23-hydroxybetulinic acid and the internal standard limonin were detected using selected ion monitoring at m/z 471 and 469, respectively. The limit of detection of 23-hydroxybetulinic acid was 0.05 pg (0.11 fmol) injected on-column (10 pg/mL, 5 microL injection volume), and the limit of quantitation was 10 pg (21.19 fmol, 2 ng/mL, 5 muL injection volume). 23-Hydroxybetulinic acid was stable in plasma samples at -20 degrees C for at least 3 weeks. The intra-day and inter-day coefficients of variation of the assay were 3.0 and 4.8%, respectively. The utility of the assay was demonstrated by measuring 23-hydroxybetulinicacid in mouse plasma following intragastric administration (IG) in vivo. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using the 3P97 pharmacokinetic software package. A two-compartment, first-order model was selected for pharmacokinetic modeling. The result showed that after IG of 200 mg/kg 23-hydroxybetulinic acid, the plasma concentrations reached peaks at 2 h with C(max) of 3.1 microg/mL. The 200 mg/kg 23-hydroxybetulinic acid suspension IG doses were found to have long elimination half-lives of 25.6 h and low bioavailability of 2.3%. No interference was noted due to endogenous substances. These analytical methods should be of value in future studies related to the development and characterization of 23-hydroxybetulinic acid.     

Direct determination of rare earth impurities in high purity erbium oxide dissolved in nitric acid by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

A novel method was developed for the direct determination of trace quantities of rare earth elements (REEs) in high purity erbium oxide dissolved in nitric acid by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in this work. The mass spectra overlap interferences arose from Er matrix on the neighbouring and monoisotopic analytes of ¹⁶⁵Ho(100) and ¹⁶⁹Tm(100) were eliminated by adjusting instrumental peak resolution value from 0.7 to 0.3 amu. The matrix suppression effect of Er on the ion peak signals of REEs impurities was effectively compensated with spiking In as internal standard element. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) of REEs impurities was from 0.0090 to 0.025 μg g⁻¹, the recoveries of spiked sample for REEs were found to be in the range of 90.3-107% through using the proposed method and relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) varied between 2.5% and 6.7%. The novel methodology had been found to be suitable for the direct determination of trace REEs impurities in 99.999-99.9999% high purity Er₂O₃ and the results obtained from this method keep in good agreement with that acquired from high resolution ICP-MS.     

A New Approach to α—Bromochalcones

α-Bromo benzolymethylene triphenylphosphorane 3 has been synthesized by the reaction of benzoylmethylene triphenylphosphorane 1 with N-bromosuccinimide in the yield of 87% and can react with aromatic aldehydes 4 to give α-bromochalcones 5 in good yields.     

A new polymer/clay nano-composite hydrogel with improved response rate and tensile mechanical properties

A new type of stimuli-responsive organic/inorganic nano-composite hydrogel was prepared by introducing fibrillar attapulgite into poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) network, in which the nanosized attapulgite fibril worked as the cross-linker instead of conventional chemical cross-linker. In the preparation process, a prepolymerization route was adopted to effectively stabilize the dispersion of attapulgite. The structure and morphology of the nano-composite hydrogels were characterized by SEM, FTIR and DSC. The swelling/deswelling behaviors and tensile mechanical properties of the nano-composite hydrogels were compared with that of the corresponding chemically cross-linked hydrogel. The results showed that the nano-composite hydrogels had much greater equilibrium-swelling ratio, much faster response rate to pH and significantly improved tensile mechanical properties. As the content of AT increased, the tensile strength, effective cross-link chain density and glass transition temperature increased, while the equilibrium swelling ratio, deswelling rate and elongation at break decreased.     

A Clean Synthesis of 1,4‐Diarylquinoline Derivatives Catalyzed by TEBAC in Aqueous Media

A series of 1,4‐diarylquinoline derivatives were synthesized by the reaction of arylmethylidenemalononitriles or 2‐cyano‐3‐aryl‐1‐acrylate and 3‐arylamino‐5,5‐dimethylcyclohex‐2‐enone in aqueous media at 100 °C catalyzed by TEBAC. Meanwhile, the water medium was chosen as green solvent.     

Stochastic resonance is applied to quantitative analysis for weak chromatographic signal of glyburide in plasma

Based on the theory of stochastic resonance, a new method carried on the quantitive analysis to weak chromatographic signal of glyburide in plasma, which was embedded in the noise background and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of HPLC-UV is enhanced remarkably. This method enhances the quantification limit to 1 ng ml⁻¹, which is the same as HPLC-MS, and makes it possible to detect the weak signal accurately by HPLC-UV, which was not suitable before. The results showed good recovery and linear range from 1 to 50 ng ml⁻¹ of glyburide in plasma and the method can be used for quantitative analysis of glyburide.     

Chitosan-mediated and spatially selective electrodeposition of nanoscale particles

Nanoscale particles offer a variety of interesting properties, and there is growing interest in their assembly into higher ordered structures. We report that the pH-responsive aminopolysaccharide chitosan can mediate the electrodeposition of model nanoparticles. Chitosan is known to electrodeposit at the cathode surface in response to a high localized pH. To demonstrate that chitosan can mediate nanoparticle deposition, we suspended fluorescently labeled latex nanoparticles (100 nm diameter spheres) in a chitosan solution (1%) and performed electrodeposition (0.05 mA/cm2 for several minutes). Results demonstrate that chitosan is required for nanoparticle electrodeposition; chitosan confers spatial selectivity to electrodeposition; and nanoparticles distribute throughout the electrodeposited chitosan film. Additionally, we observed that the deposited films reversibly swell upon rehydration. This work indicates that chitosan provides a simple means to assemble nanoparticles at addressable locations and provides further evidence that stimuli-responsive biological materials may facilitate fabrication at the microscale.