Copper and iron interactions with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. A study by fast-atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry

Fast atom bombardment, combined with high-energy collision-induced tandem mass spectrometry, has been used to investigate gas-phase metal-ion interactions with captopril, enalaprilat and lisinopril, all angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.Suggestions for the location of metal-binding sites are presented. For captopril, metal binding occurs most likely at both the sulphur and the nitrogen atom. For enalaprilat and lisinopril, binding preferably occurs at the amine nitrogen. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acoustic determination of polymer molecular weights and rotation times

An acoustic waveguide device was shown to be sensitive to the molecular weight of poly(ethylene glycol) in solution over a molecular weight range determined by the operating frequency of the device. The acoustic device used generates a shear wave with displacement in the plane of the device surface and normal to the direction of propagation. Liquid over the device exhibits viscous coupling to the oscillating surface, affecting propagation of the acoustic wave. The propagation loss was shown to be directly proportional to the weight percentage of the solute. For a given weight percent of polymer in solution, the loss increased with increasing molecular weight until a maximum loss value was reached; this may be due to the fact that rotational times for polymer molecules increase with molecular weight until they reach a point at which the rotation is limited by the oscillation time on the device surface. The molecular weight at which the maximum loss value was attained was 10,000 g/mol for a device operating at 104 MHz and 3350 g/mol for a device operating at 331 MHz, implying a rotational time of 1 ns for each 2200 increase in molecular weight. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1490–1495, 2002     

Determination of loads applied perpendicularly to the outer boundary of a ring using coefficients of influence

A procedure is explained to determined the amount of several pairs of diametrical loads applied to the outside boundary of a ring when stresses at selected points of the inside or outside boundaries are known. Coefficients of influence are used, following an approach similar to the one presented in a previous paper. Examples of application are given and the possible increase in precision is shown when the number of points of measurements is larger than the number of loads to be determined.     

Semi-empirical relationships between effective mobility,charge, and molecular weight of pharmaceuticals by pressure-assisted capillary electrophoresis: applications in drug discovery

Relationships between effective mobility (m(eff)), calculated charge (Z(c)), and molecular weight (MW) are semi-empirically derived for pharmaceuticals using pressure-assisted capillary electrophoresis (PACE). We determined the m(eff) at 12 different pH points (2.0-11.4) of 66 pharmaceutical-like compounds ranging in MW from 79 to 825 g/mol. Plots of the observed m(eff) values versus Z(c)/MW(x ) (where x is a fractional coefficient) gave linear relationships. For anions, it was found that the best correlation (R(2) = 0.9666) exists when the fractional coefficient is equal to 0.4920, resulting in the equation m(eff) = 0.1853 (Z(c)/MW (0.4920)). For cations, the best linear relationship (R(2) = 0.9861) gave the equation m(eff) = 0.3888 (Z(c)/MW (0.6330)). The m(eff), Z(c)/MW(x) relationships were then applied to: (i) developing a technique for selecting an appropriate pH to achieve optimal separation of pharmaceuticals and (ii) determining the maximum charge of a molecule in the pH range of determination of negative log of the dissociation constants (pK(a)) by PACE, thus enabling the correct choice of model equation to be automated without structure analysis.