Light and heavy dansyl reporter groups in food chemistry: amino acid assay in beverages

5-Dimethylamino-1-sulfonyl naphthalene (DNS, commonly referred as dansyl) is a functionality, bearing well-established properties in directing the fragmentation, by mass spectrometry (MS), of the corresponding ionized sulfonylated derivatives. This property is shared also by its labeled analogs. The use of d(0)/d(6) DNS derivatives is now exploited in the application of the well-established isotope dilution mass spectrometric approach in the assay of complex mixtures. A new method for the quantitation of amino acids (AAs) in beverages is therefore presented, which relies on liquid chromatographic separation of their N-dansylated derivatives followed by comparative electrospray tandem MS/MS of the d(0)/d(6) isobaric mixtures. Labeled and unlabeled DNS derivatives of the selected AAs are readily available by microwave-assisted synthetic protocols. The novelty of the method is represented by the use of heavy and light DNS-isotopologue providing suitable reporter groups. Multiple-reaction monitoring has been applied in the assay of AAs in wine, pineapple juice and bergamot juice with good-to-excellent results as proved by both relative standard deviation, lower than 15%, and by the accuracy values in the range 90-110%.     

Dysregulation of Na+/K+ ATPase by amyloid in APP+PS1 transgenic mice

Background  

The pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is comprised of extracellular amyloid plaques, intracellular tau tangles, dystrophic neurites and neurodegeneration. The mechanisms by which these various pathological features arise are under intense investigation. Here, expanding upon pilot gene expression studies, we have further analyzed the relationship between Na+/K+ ATPase and amyloid using APP+PS1 transgenic mice, a model that develops amyloid plaques and memory deficits in the absence of tangle formation and neuronal or synaptic loss.     

A ToF-SIMS and XPS study of protein adsorption and cell attachment across PEG-like plasma polymer films with lateral compositional gradients

In this work we report a detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) study of poly(ethylene glycol) PEG-like chemical gradients deposited via plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) at two different load powers using diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DG) as a monomer. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the ToF-SIMS data both before and after protein adsorption on the plasma polymer thin films. Results of the PCA loadings indicated a higher content of hydrocarbon fragments across the higher load power gradient, which adsorbed higher amounts of proteins. Gradients deposited at a lower load power retained a higher degree of monomer like functionality as did the central region directly underneath the knife edge electrode. Analysis of the adsorption of serum proteins (human serum albumin and fetal bovine serum) was monitored across the gradient films and increased with decreasing ether (PEG-like) film chemistries. The effect of protein incubation time on the levels adsorbed fetal bovine serum on the plasma polymer films was critical, with significantly more protein adsorbing after 24 hour incubation times on both gradient films. The attachment of HeLa cells on the gradients appeared to be dictated not only by the surface chemistry, but also by the adsorption of serum proteins. XPS analysis revealed that at surface ether concentrations of less than 70% in the gradient films, significant increases in protein and cell attachment were observed.     

Temperature-driven change in the unstable growth mode on patterned GaAs(001)

We observe a dramatic change in the unstable growth mode during GaAs molecular beam epitaxy on patterned GaAs(001) as the temperature is lowered through approximately 540 degrees C, roughly coincident with the preroughening temperature. Observations of the As2 flux dependence, however, rule out thermodynamic preroughening as driving the growth mode change. Similar observations rule out the change in surface reconstruction as the cause. Instead, we find evidence that the change in the unstable growth mode can be explained by a competition between the decreased adatom collection rate on small terraces and a small anisotropic barrier to adatom diffusion downward across step bunches.     

Effect of interfacial shallow traps on polaron transport at the surface of organic semiconductors

The photo-induced electron and hole transfer across the semiconductor-dielectric interface in trap-dominated p-type organic field-effect transistors has been investigated. It has been observed that the transfer of electrons into the dielectric results in a decrease of the field-effect mobility of polarons, suggesting that additional shallow traps are generated in the conduction channel. Using this effect, the dependence of the field-effect mobility on the density of shallow traps, mu(N), has been measured, which allowed us to estimate the average polaron trapping time, tau_{tr}=50+/-10 ps, and the density of shallow traps, N0=(3+/-0.5) x 10(11) cm(-2), in the channel of single-crystal tetracene devices.     

Reaction of α-Pinene and β-Pinene with Diethyl Hydrogen Phosphite Under Free Radical Conditions

We have found that α-pinene and β-pinene react with diethyl hydrogen phosphite (DEHP) and di-tert-butyl peroxide (TOOT) to form both mono- and diphosphonates. When the reaction was catalyzed by TOOT at 140-150[ddot]C, the major products were diphosphonates. Under comparatively mild initiation by benzoyl. peroxide at 80[ddot]C monophosphonate adducts were the major products.     

Optimization of Biocompatibility for a Hydrophilic Biological Molecule Encapsulation System

Despite considerable advances in recent years, challenges in delivery and storage of biological drugs persist and may delay or prohibit their clinical application. Though nanoparticle-based approaches for small molecule drug encapsulation are mature, encapsulation of proteins remains problematic due to destabilization of the protein. Reverse micelles composed of decylmonoacyl glycerol (10MAG) and lauryldimethylamino-N-oxide (LDAO) in low-viscosity alkanes have been shown to preserve the structure and stability of a wide range of biological macromolecules. Here, we present a first step on developing this system as a future platform for storage and delivery of biological drugs by replacing the non-biocompatible alkane solvent with solvents currently used in small molecule delivery systems. Using a novel screening approach, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of the 10MAG/LDAO system using two preparation methods across seven biocompatible solvents with analysis of toxicity and encapsulation efficiency for each solvent. By using an inexpensive hydrophilic small molecule to test a wide range of conditions, we identify optimal solvent properties for further development. We validate the predictions from this screen with preliminary protein encapsulation tests. The insight provided lays the foundation for further development of this system toward long-term room-temperature storage of biologics or toward water-in-oil-in-water biologic delivery systems.     

Efficient thermal field computation in phase-field models

We solve the phase-field equations in two dimensions to simulate crystal growth in the low undercooling regime. The novelty is the use of a fast solver for the free space heat equation to compute the thermal field. This solver is based on the efficient direct evaluation of the integral representation of the solution to the constant coefficient, free space heat equation with a smooth source term. The computational cost and memory requirements of the new solver are reasonable and no artificial boundary conditions are needed. This allows one to solve for the thermal field in a computational domain whose size depends only on the size of the growing crystal and not on the extent of the thermal field, which can result in significant computational savings in the low undercooling regime.