Investigations on the adsorbents for uremic middle molecular toxins (II)

Chitosan resins, which clinically served as adsorbents in hemo perfusion therapy, were prepared with reversed-phase suspension methodology using three differently structured crosslinking agents, methanal, glyoxal and glutaraldehyde. And the glyoxal and glutaraldehyde crosslinked chitosan resins were reduced with NaBH₄ afterwards. By analyzing the results from FTIR and SEM, it was found that the reduction treatment to the adsorbents efficiently improved the chemical stability of these chitosan resins, and the shifts in crosslinking agents exerted influences over the morphologies of the adsorbents obviously. After being put to use in the adsorption tests upon some model uremic middle molecular toxins and BSA in vitro, all three adsorbents demonstrated a fairly realistic adsorption capability to the model toxins but little to BSA. And the adsorption process reached the equilibrium in a clinically qualified short time. But the adsorption capacities of these adsorbents to the model toxins were quite different. It had been found that with the growing of fatty chain length of crosslinking agent, these adsorbents showed a gradually increased adsorption capacity to the model toxins, and the glutaraldehyde crosslinked chitosan resin behaved best.     

In Silico Prediction of Cross-Reactive Epitopes of Tropomyosin from Shrimp and Other Arthropods Involved in Allergy

Tropomyosin in shellfish is considered a major cross-reactive allergen in house dust mites and cockroaches; however, the specific epitopes have not been elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the consensus antigenic determinant among shrimp, house dust mites, and cockroaches using in silico methods. The protein sequences of tropomyosin, including Der f 10, Mac r 1, Pen a 1, Pen m 1, Per a 7, and Bla g 7, were retrieved from the UniProt database. The 3D structures were derived from the AlphaFold or modeled using the Robetta. The determination of linear epitopes was performed by AlgPRED and BepiPRED for B cell epitope, and NetMHCIIpan and NetMHCII for T cell epitope, while Ellipro was used to evaluate conformational epitopes. Fourteen peptides were discovered as the consensus linear B cell epitopes, while seventeen peptides were identified as linear T cell epitopes specific to high-frequency HLA-DR and HLA-DQ alleles. The conformational determination of B cell epitopes provided nine peptides, in which residues 209, 212, 255–256, and 258–259 were found in both linear B cell and linear T cell epitope analysis. This data could be utilized for further in vitro study and may contribute to immunotherapy for allergic diseases associated with tropomyosin.     

Refolding of disulfide containing peptides in fusion with thioredoxin

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Automatic HPLC-UV determination of domoic acid in mussels and algae

Summary A rapid and sensitive automatic method is presented for the determination of domoic acid (DA) using HPLC with a column-switching system and UV-detection. Interfering peaks resulting from matrix protein components are excluded by use of an especially designed reversed-phase HPLC column for pre-separation. The method is suitable for extracts both from mussels and from algae. Sample material is extracted with pure water and the crude extract is injected directly. Application of a column-switching system eliminates the need for any further sample clean-up after extraction. Presented at the 21^st ISC held in Stuttgart, Germany, 15^th–20^th September, 1996     

Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography of algal toxins

Recent methods employed for the analysis of algal toxins have focused on high performance liquid chromatography. However these methods suffer from poor resolution, poor efficiency, and long analysis times. This study involves the investigation of a number of toxins including nodularin, microcystin LR, YR, and RR which are cyclic peptides produced by strains of blue-green algae. The electroseparation mode was micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) using a borate buffer containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as the surgactant of choice. The method was optimized with standard toxin compounds and employed for the screening opf toxins in supercritical fluid extracts (SFE) of freeze-thawed algal scum samples.     

Discrimination of extracted lipophilic constituents of Angelica with multi-steps infrared macro-fingerprint method

It is the most pressing task that fast and effective analysis methods monitor the inherent qualities of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its corresponding extract products as a complicated mixture system. Owing to the unique fingerprint character and extensive applicability to test sample, infrared spectral method has been used in many research fields. In recent years, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), accompanied with the development of spectroscopic technology and combined with computer science, plays an important role in the TCM research. In this paper, we use FT-IR, second derivative infrared spectroscopy and two-dimensional correlation infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR) step by step to analyze the lipophilic constituents in Angelica extracted by two different extract crafts. As a result, all spectra can not only supply lots of structural information of main constituents in the complicated system, but also can differentiate the tiny differences between the similar systems according to the infrared macro-fingerprint characters. This is a very quick, effective and well repetitive method for monitoring the process of the TCM.     

Comparison of different fluorimetric HPLC methods for analysis of acidic polyether toxins in marine phytoplankton

The human toxic syndrome, diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP), is caused by polyether toxins that are present in bivalve molluscs but originate from some species of marine phytoplankton. During the last few years different HPLC methods with fluorescence detection (FLD) have been proposed for analysis of marine toxins, including polyether toxins, in shellfish and phytoplankton. Several derivatization reagents have been proposed in the literature, with the aim of converting the acidic DSP toxins into their corresponding fluorescent derivatives. In this work we report results obtained from HPLC–FLD analysis of extracts from phytoplankton, including Dinophysis spp., harvested off the south-west coast of Ireland. Three different reagents were used for fluorescent derivatization: 3-bromomethyl-6,7-dimethoxy-1-methyl-2(1H)-quinoxalinone (BrDMEQ), 9-chloromethylanthracene (CA), and in situ 9-anthracenyldiazomethane (ADAM). Derivatization was performed under conditions previously optimised. The DSP derivatives were cleaned using different SPE procedures then analysed by HPLC–FLD. In this study, the use of BrDMEQ, CA, and in situ ADAM was compared in terms of sensitivity and selectivity. Evaluation of HPLC methods for analysis of DSP toxin derivatives was also conducted; the presence of okadaic acid (OA), dinophysistoxin-2 (DTX-2), and pectenotoxin-2 seco acids (PTX1SAs) was detected in the sample extracts studied.     

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography--mass spectrometry for the analysis of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) was examined for the separation of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins using the stationary phase TSK-gel Amide-80. The parameters tested included type of organic modifier and percentage in the mobile phase, buffer concentration, pH, flow rate and column temperature. Using mass spectrometric (MS) detection, the HILIC column allowed the determination of all the major PSP toxins in one 30 min analysis with a high degree of selectivity and sensitivity. The high percentage of organic modifier in the mobile phase and the omission of ion pairing reagents, both favored in HILIC, provided limits of detection (LOD) in the range 50-100 nM in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode on a single quadrupole LC-MS system. LOD in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode on a sensitive triple quadrupole system were as low as 5-30 nM. Excellent linearity of response was observed.     

Novel Sensors for Batch and Flow Injection Analysis of Histamine Based on Crown Ethers

Six types of histamine potentiometric sensors are developed. They are based on using dibenzo‐30‐crown‐10 (DB30C10) with potassium tetrakis(p‐chlorophenyl)borate lipophilic additive (Type I), dibenzo‐30‐crown‐10 without additive (Type II), dibenzo‐24‐crown‐8 (DB24C8) with the same additive (Type III), dibenzo‐24‐crown‐8 without additive (Type IV), dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6 with the additive (Type V) and dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6 without additive (Type VI) as neutral carriers for histamine. Sensors based on dibenzo‐30‐crown‐10 with (PTp‐C1PB) lipophilic additive (Type I) and dibenzo‐30‐crown‐10 without additive (Type II) show good response. The other sensors Types III–VI show poor response in terms of calibration range and slope.     

Synthesis and structure of lipophilic dioxo-molybdenum (VI) bis(hydroxamato) complexes

New methods for the synthesis of complexes of molybdenyl with hydrophobic alkyl-substituted hydroxamic acids have been developed. A number of novel coordination compounds of the general formula MoO₂L₂ (where HL is decano-, N-methyl-decano-, N-methyl-hexano-, N-methyl-1-adamantano- and N-tert-butyl-hexanohydroxamic acids) have been synthesized. All compounds obtained have been characterized by IR, ¹H NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. The effect of the electron donating and steric properties of ligand substituents on the structure of complexes is discussed.