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Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
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    Plasmonic Hepatitis B Biosensor for the Analysis of Clinical Saliva
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2017) Riedel, Tomáš; Hageneder, Simone; Surman, František; Pop-Georgievski, Ognen; Noehammer, Christa; Hofner, Manuela; Brynda, Eduard; Rodriguez-Emmenegger, Cesar; Dostálek, Jakub
    A biosensor for the detection of hepatitis B antibodies in clinical saliva was developed. Compared to conventional analysis of blood serum, it offers the advantage of noninvasive collection of samples. Detection of biomarkers in saliva imposes two major challenges associated with the low analyte concentration and increased surface fouling. The detection of minute amounts of hepatitis B antibodies was performed by plasmonically amplified fluorescence sandwich immunoassay. To have access to specific detection, we prevented the nonspecific adsorption of biomolecules present in saliva by brushes of poly[(N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide)-co-(carboxybetaine methacrylamide)] grafted from the gold sensor surface and post modified with hepatitis B surface antigen. Obtained results were validated against the response measured with ELISA at a certified laboratory using serum from the same patients. © 2017
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    High-Sensitivity Rheo-NMR Spectroscopy for Protein Studies
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2017) Morimoto, Daichi; Walinda, Erik; Iwakawa, Naoto; Nishizawa, Mayu; Kawata, Yasushi; Yamamoto, Akihiko; Shirakawa, Masahiro; Scheler, Ulrich; Sugase, Kenji
    Shear stress can induce structural deformation of proteins, which might result in aggregate formation. Rheo-NMR spectroscopy has the potential to monitor structural changes in proteins under shear stress at the atomic level; however, existing Rheo-NMR methodologies have insufficient sensitivity to probe protein structure and dynamics. Here we present a simple and versatile approach to Rheo-NMR, which maximizes sensitivity by using a spectrometer equipped with a cryogenic probe. As a result, the sensitivity of the instrument ranks highest among the Rheo-NMR spectrometers reported so far. We demonstrate that the newly developed Rheo-NMR instrument can acquire high-quality relaxation data for a protein under shear stress and can trace structural changes in a protein during fibril formation in real time. The described approach will facilitate rheological studies on protein structural deformation, thereby aiding a physical understanding of shear-induced amyloid fibril formation.
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    Secondary Structure and Glycosylation of Mucus Glycoproteins by Raman Spectroscopies
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2016) Davies, Heather S.; Singh, Prabha; Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Deckert, Volker; Rousseau, Karine; Ridley, Caroline E.; Dowd, Sarah E.; Doig, Andrew J.; Pudney, Paul D. A.; Thornton, David J.; Blanch, Ewan W.
    The major structural components of protective mucus hydrogels on mucosal surfaces are the secreted polymeric gel-forming mucins. The very high molecular weight and extensive O-glycosylation of gel-forming mucins, which are key to their viscoelastic properties, create problems when studying mucins using conventional biochemical/structural techniques. Thus, key structural information, such as the secondary structure of the various mucin subdomains, and glycosylation patterns along individual molecules, remains to be elucidated. Here, we utilized Raman spectroscopy, Raman optical activity (ROA), circular dichroism (CD), and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) to study the structure of the secreted polymeric gel-forming mucin MUC5B. ROA indicated that the protein backbone of MUC5B is dominated by unordered conformation, which was found to originate from the heavily glycosylated central mucin domain by isolation of MUC5B O-glycan-rich regions. In sharp contrast, recombinant proteins of the N-terminal region of MUC5B (D1-D2-D′-D3 domains, NT5B), C-terminal region of MUC5B (D4-B-C-CK domains, CT5B) and the Cys-domain (within the central mucin domain of MUC5B) were found to be dominated by the β-sheet. Using these findings, we employed TERS, which combines the chemical specificity of Raman spectroscopy with the spatial resolution of atomic force microscopy to study the secondary structure along 90 nm of an individual MUC5B molecule. Interestingly, the molecule was found to contain a large amount of α-helix/unordered structures and many signatures of glycosylation, pointing to a highly O-glycosylated region on the mucin.
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    Quantification of Dolichyl Phosphates Using Phosphate Methylation and Reverse-Phase Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2023) Kale, Dipali; Kikul, Frauke; Phapale, Prasad; Beedgen, Lars; Thiel, Christian; Brügger, Britta
    Dolichyl monophosphates (DolPs) are essential lipids in glycosylation pathways that are highly conserved across almost all domains of life. The availability of DolP is critical for all glycosylation processes, as these lipids serve as membrane-anchored building blocks used by various types of glycosyltransferases to generate complex post-translational modifications of proteins and lipids. The analysis of DolP species by reverse-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (RPLC-MS) remains a challenge due to their very low abundance and wide range of lipophilicities. Until now, a method for the simultaneous qualitative and quantitative assessment of DolP species from biological membranes has been lacking. Here, we describe a novel approach based on simple sample preparation, rapid and efficient trimethylsilyl diazomethane-dependent phosphate methylation, and RPLC-MS analysis for quantification of DolP species with different isoprene chain lengths. We used this workflow to selectively quantify DolP species from lipid extracts derived of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, HeLa, and human skin fibroblasts from steroid 5-α-reductase 3- congenital disorders of glycosylation (SRD5A3-CDG) patients and healthy controls. Integration of this workflow with global lipidomics analyses will be a powerful tool to expand our understanding of the role of DolPs in pathophysiological alterations of metabolic pathways downstream of HMG-CoA reductase, associated with CDGs, hypercholesterolemia, neurodegeneration, and cancer.
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    Detection of Protein Glycosylation Using Tip-Enhanced Raman Scattering
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2016) Cowcher, David P.; Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Brewster, Victoria L.; Ashton, Lorna; Deckert, Volker; Goodacre, Royston
    The correct glycosylation of biopharmaceutical glycoproteins and their formulations is essential for them to have the desired therapeutic effect on the patient. It has recently been shown that Raman spectroscopy can be used to quantify the proportion of glycosylated protein from mixtures of native and glycosylated forms of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase). Here we show the first steps toward not only the detection of glycosylation status but the characterization of glycans themselves from just a few protein molecules at a time using tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS). While this technique generates complex data that are very dependent on the protein orientation, with the careful development of combined data preprocessing, univariate and multivariate analysis techniques, we have shown that we can distinguish between the native and glycosylated forms of RNase. Many glycoproteins contain populations of subtly different glycoforms; therefore, with stricter orientation control, we believe this has the potential to lead to further glycan characterization using TERS, which would have use in biopharmaceutical synthesis and formulation research.
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    Comparability of Raman Spectroscopic Configurations: A Large Scale Cross-Laboratory Study
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2020) Guo S.; Beleites C.; Neugebauer U.; Abalde-Cela S.; Afseth N.K.; Alsamad F.; Anand S.; Araujo-Andrade C.; Aškrabić S.; Avci E.; Baia M.; Baranska M.; Baria E.; Batista De Carvalho L.A.E.; De Bettignies P.; Bonifacio A.; Bonnier F.; Brauchle E.M.; Byrne H.J.; Chourpa I.; Cicchi R.; Cuisinier F.; Culha M.; Dahms M.; David C.; Duponchel L.; Duraipandian S.; El-Mashtoly S.F.; Ellis D.I.; Eppe G.; Falgayrac G.; Gamulin O.; Gardner B.; Gardner P.; Gerwert K.; Giamarellos-Bourboulis E.J.; Gizurarson S.; Gnyba M.; Goodacre R.; Grysan P.; Guntinas-Lichius O.; Helgadottir H.; Grošev V.M.; Kendall C.; Kiselev R.; Kölbach M.; Krafft C.; Krishnamoorthy S.; Kubryck P.; Lendl B.; Loza-Alvarez P.; Lyng F.M.; Machill S.; Malherbe C.; Marro M.; Marques M.P.M.; Matuszyk E.; Morasso C.F.; Moreau M.; Muhamadali H.; Mussi V.; Notingher I.; Pacia M.Z.; Pavone F.S.; Penel G.; Petersen D.; Piot O.; Rau J.V.; Richter M.; Rybarczyk M.K.; Salehi H.; Schenke-Layland K.; Schlücker S.; Schosserer M.; Schütze K.; Sergo V.; Sinjab F.; Smulko J.; Sockalingum G.D.; Stiebing C.; Stone N.; Untereiner V.; Vanna R.; Wieland K.; Popp J.; Bocklitz T.
    The variable configuration of Raman spectroscopic platforms is one of the major obstacles in establishing Raman spectroscopy as a valuable physicochemical method within real-world scenarios such as clinical diagnostics. For such real world applications like diagnostic classification, the models should ideally be usable to predict data from different setups. Whether it is done by training a rugged model with data from many setups or by a primary-replica strategy where models are developed on a 'primary' setup and the test data are generated on 'replicate' setups, this is only possible if the Raman spectra from different setups are consistent, reproducible, and comparable. However, Raman spectra can be highly sensitive to the measurement conditions, and they change from setup to setup even if the same samples are measured. Although increasingly recognized as an issue, the dependence of the Raman spectra on the instrumental configuration is far from being fully understood and great effort is needed to address the resulting spectral variations and to correct for them. To make the severity of the situation clear, we present a round robin experiment investigating the comparability of 35 Raman spectroscopic devices with different configurations in 15 institutes within seven European countries from the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) action Raman4clinics. The experiment was developed in a fashion that allows various instrumental configurations ranging from highly confocal setups to fibre-optic based systems with different excitation wavelengths. We illustrate the spectral variations caused by the instrumental configurations from the perspectives of peak shifts, intensity variations, peak widths, and noise levels. We conclude this contribution with recommendations that may help to improve the inter-laboratory studies. © 2020 American Chemical Society.
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    Polymer Brush-Functionalized Chitosan Hydrogels as Antifouling Implant Coatings
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2017) Buzzacchera, Irene; Vorobii, Mariia; Kostina, Nina Yu; de Los Santos Pereira, Andres; Riedel, Tomáš; Bruns, Michael; Ogieglo, Wojciech; Möller, Martin; Wilson, Christopher J.; Rodriguez-Emmenegger, Cesar
    Implantable sensor devices require coatings that efficiently interface with the tissue environment to mediate biochemical analysis. In this regard, bioinspired polymer hydrogels offer an attractive and abundant source of coating materials. However, upon implantation these materials generally elicit inflammation and the foreign body reaction as a consequence of protein fouling on their surface and concomitant poor hemocompatibility. In this report we investigate a strategy to endow chitosan hydrogel coatings with antifouling properties by the grafting of polymer brushes in a "grafting-from" approach. Chitosan coatings were functionalized with polymer brushes of oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate using photoinduced single electron transfer living radical polymerization and the surfaces were thoroughly characterized by XPS, AFM, water contact angle goniometry, and in situ ellipsometry. The antifouling properties of these new bioinspired hydrogel-brush coatings were investigated by surface plasmon resonance. The influence of the modifications to the chitosan on hemocompatibility was assessed by contacting the surfaces with platelets and leukocytes. The coatings were hydrophilic and reached a thickness of up to 180 nm within 30 min of polymerization. The functionalization of the surface with polymer brushes significantly reduced the protein fouling and eliminated platelet activation and leukocyte adhesion. This methodology offers a facile route to functionalizing implantable sensor systems with antifouling coatings that improve hemocompatibility and pave the way for enhanced device integration in tissue.
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    IR-MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging with Plasma Post-Ionization of Nonpolar Metabolites
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2022) Schneemann, Julian; Schäfer, Karl-Christian; Spengler, Bernhard; Heiles, Sven
    Ambient mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) methods come with the advantage of visualizing biomolecules from tissues with no or minimal sample preparation and operation under atmospheric-pressure conditions. Similar to all other MSI methodologies, however, ambient MSI modalities suffer from a pronounced bias toward either polar or nonpolar analytes due to the underlying desorption and ionization mechanisms of the ion source. In this study, we present the design, construction, testing, and application of an in-capillary dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) module for post-ionization of neutrals desorbed by an ambient infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (IR-MALDI) MSI source. We demonstrate that the DBD device enhances signal intensities of nonpolar compounds by up to 104 compared to IR-MALDI without affecting transmission of IR-MALDI ions. This allows performing MSI experiments of mouse tissue and Danaus plexippus caterpillar tissue sections, visualizing the distribution of sterols, fatty acids, monoglycerides, and diglycerides that are not detected in IR-MALDI MSI experiments. The pronounced signal enhancement due to IR-MALDI-DBD compared to IR-MALDI MSI enables mapping of nonpolar analytes with pixel resolutions down to 20 μm in mouse brain tissue and to discern the spatial distribution of sterol lipids characteristic for histological regions of D. plexippus.
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    Direct raman spectroscopic measurements of biological nitrogen fixation under natural conditions: An analytical approach for studying nitrogenase activity
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2016) Jochum, Tobias; Fastnacht, Agnes; Trumbore, Susan E.; Popp, Jürgen; Frosch, Torsten
    Biological N2 fixation is a major input of bioavailable nitrogen, which represents the most frequent factor limiting the agricultural production throughout the world. Especially, the symbiotic association between legumes and Rhizobium bacteria can provide substantial amounts of nitrogen (N) and reduce the need for industrial fertilizers. Despite its importance in the global N cycle, rates of biological nitrogen fixation have proven difficult to quantify. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a simple analytical approach to measure biological N2 fixation rates directly without a proxy or isotopic labeling. We determined a mean N2 fixation rate of 78 ± 5 μmol N2 (g dry weight nodule)-1 h-1 of a Medicago sativa-Rhizobium consortium by continuously analyzing the amount of atmospheric N2 in static environmental chambers with Raman gas spectroscopy. By simultaneously analyzing the CO2 uptake and photosynthetic plant activity, we think that a minimum CO2 mixing ratio might be needed for natural N2 fixation and only used the time interval above this minimum CO2 mixing ratio for N2 fixation rate calculations. The proposed approach relies only on noninvasive measurements of the gas phase and, given its simplicity, indicates the potential to estimate biological nitrogen fixation of legume symbioses not only in laboratory experiments. The same methods can presumably also be used to detect N2 fluxes by denitrification from ecosystems to the atmosphere. (Figure Presented).
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    Humic Substance Photosensitized Degradation of Phthalate Esters Characterized by 2H and 13C Isotope Fractionation
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2023) Min, Ning; Yao, Jun; Li, Hao; Chen, Zhihui; Pang, Wancheng; Zhu, Junjie; Kümmel, Steffen; Schaefer, Thomas; Herrmann, Hartmut; Richnow, Hans Hermann
    The photosensitized transformation of organic chemicals is an important degradation mechanism in natural surface waters, aerosols, and water films on surfaces. Dissolved organic matter including humic-like substances (HS), acting as photosensitizers that participate in electron transfer reactions, can generate a variety of reactive species, such as OH radicals and excited triplet-state HS (3HS*), which promote the degradation of organic compounds. We use phthalate esters, which are important contaminants found in wastewaters, landfills, soils, rivers, lakes, groundwaters, and mine tailings. We use phthalate esters as probes to study the reactivity of HS irradiated with artificial sunlight. Phthalate esters with different side-chain lengths were used as probes for elucidation of reaction mechanisms using 2H and 13C isotope fractionation. Reference experiments with the artificial photosensitizers 4,5,6,7-tetrachloro-2′,4′,5′,7′-tetraiodofluorescein (Rose Bengal), 3-methoxy-acetophenone (3-MAP), and 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (4-MBA) yielded characteristic fractionation factors (−4 ± 1, −4 ± 2, and −4 ± 1‰ for 2H; 0.7 ± 0.2, 1.0 ± 0.4, and 0.8 ± 0.2‰ for 13C), allowing interpretation of reaction mechanisms of humic substances with phthalate esters. The correlation of 2H and 13C fractions can be used diagnostically to determine photosensitized reactions in the environment and to differentiate among biodegradation, hydrolysis, and photosensitized HS reaction.