STUDIES ON ALKALY METAL HALIDES AGGREGATES IN GAS PHASE

Automated untargeted stable isotope assisted lipidomics of liver cells on high glucose shows alteration of sphingolipid kinetics

Abstract Untargeted lipidomics is a powerful tool to discover new biomarkers and to understand the physiology and pathology of lipids. The use of stable isotopes as tracers to investigate the kinetics of lipids is another tool able to supply dynamic information on lipid synthesis and catabolism. Coupling the two methodology is then very appealing in the study of lipid metabolism. The main issue to face is to perform thousands of calculations in order to obtain kinetic parameters starting from the MS raw data. An automated computerized routine able to do accomplish such task is presented in this paper. We analyzed the lipid kinetics of palmitic acid (PA) in hepatoma liver cells cultured in v…

Fruit physical, chemical and aromatic attributes of early, intermediate and late apricot cultivars.

BACKGROUND: In order to reach good fruit quality, apricots require a balance of sugars and acids as well as a strong apricot aroma. In this study, fruit quality of early, intermediate and late apricot cultivars was evaluated by measuring physical, chemical and olfactory attributes. Multivariate analysis of quality and aroma attributes was used to identify groups of similar cultivars and association with ripening season. RESULTS: Physical, chemical and aromatic attributes showed great variation amongcultivars but no relation to ripening season. Aromatic profiles (34 volatiles) of fruit tissues indicated qualitative and quantitative differences among cultivars. Ninfa and Mandorlon were riches…

Qualità e profilo aromatico dei frutti di Annurca sottoposti ad arrossamento in melaio

Comparison of aroma compounds from six ancient sicilian apple cultivars

Effetto del PRD (Partial Rootzone Drying)sulla composizione della frazione volatile di mele ‘Pink Lady’

LA LIPIDOMICA DELLA NON ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE: ANALISI DELLA CINETICA DELL’ACIDO PALMITICO MEDIANTE L’USO DI UN ISOTOPO STABILE IN UN MODELLO IN VITRO

Mass spectrometry of surfactant aggregates.

In contrast with the enormous amount of literature produced during many decades in the field of surfactant aggregation in liquid, liquid crystalline and solid phases, only a few investigations concerning surfactant self-assembling in the gas phase as charged aggregates have been carried out until now. This lack of interest is disappointing in view of the remarkable theoretical and practical importance of the inherent knowledge. The absence of surfactant–solvent interactions makes it easier to study the role of surfactant–surfactant forces in determining their peculiar self-assembling features as well as the ability of these assemblies to incorporate selected solubilizate molecules. Thus, t…

STUDY OF VOLATILE COMPONENTS OF TEN VARIETIES OF SALVIA BY SPME-GC/MS AND GENERAL DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

LIPIDOMICS OF HUMAN SKIN FIBROBLASTS IN NEIMANN-PICK DISEASE TYPE C

Neimann-Pick Disease type C is a hereditary lysosomal storage disease due to mutations of the NPC1 or NPC2 genes. The products of these genes encodes for components of a lysosomal machinery that transport different kinds of lipids across the lysosomal membrane. The main abnormalities of NPC1 de ciency phenotype is the accumulation of free cholesterol (FC) and sphingolipids (GL) in brain, liver and other organs cells. Neurodegeneration and hepato-splenomegaly are common ndings. The NPC disease, in his severe onset, leads to a precocious exitus, though the inhibition of glyco-SL synthesis by miglustat has shown some clinical bene t. Recently the physiopathological mechanism has been partly el…

Charged supramolecular assemblies of surfactant molecules in gas phase

The aim of this review is to critically analyze recent literature on charged supramolecular assemblies formed by surfactant molecules in gas phase. Apart our specific interest on this research area, the stimuli to undertake the task arise from the widespread theoretical and applicative benefits emerging from a comprehensive view of this topic. In fact, the study of the formation, stability, and physicochemical peculiarities of non-covalent assemblies of surfactant molecules in gas phase allows to unveil interesting aspects such as the role of attractive, repulsive, and steric intermolecular interactions as driving force of supramolecular organization in absence of interactions with surround…

Review: Mass spectrometry of surfactant aggregates

In contrast with the enormous amount of literature produced during many decades in the field of surfactant aggregation in liquid, liquid crystalline and solid phases, only a few investigations concerning surfactant self-assembling in the gas phase as charged aggregates have been carried out until now. This lack of interest is disappointing in view of the remarkable theoretical and practical importance of the inherent knowledge. The absence of surfactant–solvent interactions makes it easier to study the role of surfactant–surfactant forces in determining their peculiar self-assembling features as well as the ability of these assemblies to incorporate selected solubilizate molecules. Thus, th…

Degrees of freedom effect on fragmentation in tandem mass spectrometry of singly charged supramolecular aggregates of sodium sulfonates

The characteristic collision energy (CCE) to obtain 50% fragmentation of positively and negatively single charged non-covalent clusters has been measured. CCE was found to increase linearly with the degrees of freedom (DoF) of the precursor ion, analogously to that observed for synthetic polymers. This suggests that fragmentation behavior (e.g. energy randomization) in covalent molecules and clusters are similar. Analysis of the slope of CCE with molecular size (DoF) indicates that activation energy of fragmentation of these clusters (loss of a monomer unit) is similar to that of the lowest energy fragmentation of protonated leucine-enkephalin. Positively and negatively charged aggregates b…

Studies by SPME-GC/MS on aroma compounds of sixteen different apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars

Micelle in fase gas: una nuova frontiera della spettroMetria di Massa

Characterization of glyceridic components of Sicilian extra virgin olive oils using LC/MS and L.D.A.

Improvement of a rapid direct blood culture microbial identification protocol using MALDI-TOF MS and performance comparison with SepsiTyper kit

Fast diagnosis of pathogens is critical to guarantee the most adequate therapy for infections; bacterial culture methods, which constitute the actual gold standard, are precise and sensitive but rather slow. Today, new methods have been made available to enable faster diagnosis, with the Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) technique being the most promising. Even if simpler and faster than traditional bacterial culture methods, analysis of positive blood cultures via MALDI-TOF MS requires a preliminary extraction process of samples. In this study, we compared two extraction protocols for bacterial identification directly from positive …

Erratum: FragClust and TestClust, two informatics tools for chemical structure hierarchical clustering analysis applied to lipidomics. The example of Alzheimer's disease (Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry DOI: 10.1007/s00216-015-9229-6)

Erratum to: FragClust and TestClust, two informatics tools for chemical structure hierarchical clustering analysis applied to lipidomics. The example of Alzheimer’s disease

Charged supramolecular assemblies of surfactant molecules in gas phase

The aim of this review is to critically analyze recent literature on charged supramolecular assemblies formed by surfactant molecules in gas phase. Apart our specific interest on this research area, the stimuli to undertake the task arise from the widespread theoretical and applicative benefits emerging from a comprehensive view of this topic. In fact, the study of the formation, stability, and physicochemical peculiarities of non-covalent assemblies of surfactant molecules in gas phase allows to unveil interesting aspects such as the role of attractive, repulsive, and steric intermolecular interactions as driving force of supramolecular organization in absence of interactions with surround…

Halogenated Anesthetics Determination in Urine by SPME/GC/MS and Urine Levels Relationship Evaluation with Surgical Theatres Contamination

In this work, a new sensitive analytical method has been developed and evaluated for the determination of the most commonly used gaseous anesthetics, desflurane, sevoflurane, and this latter’s hepatic metabolite hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) in the urine. In addition, an evaluation of anesthetics exposition on the urine levels of a small population of surgical operators has been performed and results are briefly discussed.

ION MOBILITY STUDIES ON SODIUM-BIS (2- ETHYLHEXIL)SULFOSUCCINATE (AOTNa) AGGREGATES

The supramolecular charged aggregates formed during ESI ionization of AOTNa solutions under critical micelle concentration have been studied thorough ion mobility experiments. In particular, positively charged clusters with several charge states, ranging from +1 to +4, have been investigated. It has been found that, despite to previous investigations (Siuzdak et al. 1995, Nohara et al. 1998), specific ionic aggregates with a peculiar cross section are observed. Indeed a single drift time is observed for each charged aggregate. Using both calculated cross section and experimental calibration curves the experimental cross section of the observed cation has been determined. It is worth noting …

Tecniche analitiche avanzate applicate al controllo qualità e tracciabilità in campo alimentare.

NEW INSIGHTS ON SUPRAMOLECULAR AGGREGATES OF SODIUM DOCUSATE (AOTNa) BY ION MOBILITY MASS SPECTROMETRY

Backgorund: The ability of some surfactants to form charged aggregates in gas phase has been proven experimentally by electrospray ionization (ESI) spectrometry [1- 5]. However, in the early investigations, interesting questions concerning the structural organization of these aggregates in gas phase and if they reflect their typical self-assembling in the starting liquid solutions were not addressed. Subsequently, independently of their aggregation motive in liquid phase and of the charge state in the gas phase, some hints suggesting that surfactant molecules are organized in gas phase as reverse micelle-like aggregates have been reported Objective: The supramolecular charged aggregates for…

Triacylglycerols in edible oils: Determination, characterization, quantitation, chemometric approach and evaluation of adulterations

Vegetable oils are a dietary source of lipids that constitute an essential component of a healthy diet. The commonly used vegetable oils differ significantly for their triacylglycerol (TAG) profile. TAGs represent the principal components of oils and may contain different fatty acids (FA) esterified with glycerol leading to several positional isomers. To differentiate individual TAGs species in edible oils, advanced analysis systems and innovative methods are therefore required. TAGs can be considered as good fingerprints for quality control and many studies have been performed to develop rapid and low cost analytical methods to determinate the authenticity, origin and eventually evidence f…

Hypertonic Saline in Conjunction with High-Dose Furosemide Improves Dose-Response Curves in Worsening Refractory Congestive Heart Failure.

Introduction Diuretic responsiveness in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) is better assessed by urine production per unit diuretic dose than by the absolute urine output or diuretic dose. Diuretic resistance arises over time when the plateau rate of sodium and water excretion is reached prior to optimal fluid elimination and may be overcome when hypertonic saline solution (HSS) is added to high doses of furosemide. Methods Forty-two consecutively hospitalized patients with refractory CHF were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to furosemide doses (125 mg, 250 mg, 500 mg) so that all patients received intravenous furosemide diluted in 150 ml of normal saline (0.9%) in the first step (0–24 h…

Fruit physical, chemical and aromatic attributes of early, intermediate and late apricot cultivars

BACKGROUND: In order to reach good fruit quality, apricots require a balance of sugars and acids as well as a strong apricot aroma. In this study, fruit quality of early, intermediate and late apricot cultivars was evaluated by measuring physical, chemical and olfactory attributes. Multivariate analysis of quality and aroma attributes was used to identify groups of similar cultivars and association with ripening season. RESULTS: Physical, chemical and aromatic attributes showed great variation among cultivars but no relation to ripening season. Aromatic profiles (34 volatiles) of fruit tissues indicated qualitative and quantitative differences among cultivars. Ninfa and Mandorlon were riche…

FragClust and TestClust, two informatics tools for chemical structure hierarchical clustering analysis applied to lipidomics. The example of Alzheimer's disease

Lipidomic analysis is able to measure simultaneously thousands of compounds belonging to a few lipid classes. In each lipid class, compounds differ only by the acyl radical, ranging between C10:0 (capric acid) and C24:0 (lignoceric acid). Although some metabolites have a peculiar pathological role, more often compounds belonging to a single lipid class exert the same biological effect. Here, we present a lipidomics workflow that extracts the tandem mass spectrometry data from individual files and uses them to group compounds into structurally homogeneous clusters by chemical structure hierarchical clustering analysis (CHCA). The case-to-control peak area ratios of the metabolites are then a…

Study of green Sicilian Table Olive Fermentation Through Microbiological, Chemical, Hs-Spme and Sensory analyses

FORENSIC INVESTIGATION OF KERATIN MATRIX: DEVELOPMENT OF A METHOD BY TURBOFLOW™ HPLC-MS/MS FOR CANNABINOIDS QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

The products of cannabis are the most frequently used illicit drugs of abuse detected in workplace drug-testing programs or in cases of driving under the influence of drugs. For this reason, there is a great need for sensitive and specific methods which can confirm the chronic exposure and which take account of the cut-off values that have been proposed in Italy by the GTFI Guidelines (Group of Italian Forensic Toxicologists). The method currently more appropriate for quantification of Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its major metabolite 11-nor-9-Carboxy-Δ9-THC (THCA) appears to be one that involves HPLC-MS/MS and keratin matrix. The purpose of this work, performed at the Mass Spectrometr…

Determination of the cultivar and aging of Sicilian olive oils using HPLC-MS and linear discriminant analysis

A large number of certified samples (84) of Sicilian olive oils arising from the eight cultivars most represented in Sicily (Biancolilla, Cerasuola, Moresca, Nocellara del Belice, Nocellara Etnea, Oglialora Messinese, Brandofino and Tonda Iblea) have been collected and analyzed by HPLC/MS using an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source. The sample preparation is very simple; in fact, the oil samples are diluted without any chemical derivatization. A following statistical data treatment by general discriminant analysis (GDA) allows the determination of the olive oil cultivar. Furthermore, changes in the composition of glyceridic components of the olive oils lead to easy discr…

Genotoxicity of citrus wastewater in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and efficiency of heterogeneous photocatalysis by TiO(2).

Abstract The presence of (±)α-pinene, (+)β-pinene, (+)3-carene, and R-(+)limonene terpenes in wastewater of a citrus transformation factory was detected and analyzed, in a previous study, by using Solid Phase Micro-extraction (SPME) followed by GC analyses. Purpose of that research was to compare the genotoxic responses of mixtures of terpenes with the genotoxicity of the individual compounds, and the biological effects of actual wastewater. Genotoxicity was evaluated in the Salmonella reversion assay (Ames test) and in V79 cells by Comet assay. Ames tests indicated that the four single terpenes did not induce an increase of revertants frequency. On the contrary, the mixtures of terpenes ca…