Time of flight mass spectrometry for quantitative data analysis in fast transient studies using a Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) reactor

A Time of flight (ToF) mass spectrometer suitable in terms of sensitivity, detector response and time resolution, for application in fast transient Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) kinetic catalyst characterization is reported. Technical difficulties associated with such application as well as the solutions implemented in terms of adaptations of the ToF apparatus are discussed. The performance of the ToF was validated and the full linearity of the specific detector over the full dynamic range was explored in order to ensure its applicability for the TAP application. The reported TAP-ToF setup is the first system that achieves the high level of sensitivity allowing monitoring of the full 0-200 AMU range simultaneously with sub-millisecond time resolution. In this new setup, the high sensitivity allows the use of low intensity pulses ensuring that transport through the reactor occurs in the Knudsen diffusion regime and that the data can, therefore, be fully analysed using the reported theoretical TAP models and data processing.

On Entropy-Based Molecular Descriptors: Statistical Analysis of Real and Synthetic Chemical Structures

This paper presents an analysis of entropy-based molecular descriptors. Specifically, we use real chemical structures, as well as synthetic isomeric structures, and investigate properties of and among descriptors with respect to the used data set by a statistical analysis. Our numerical results provide evidence that synthetic chemical structures are notably different to real chemical structures and, hence, should not be used to investigate molecular descriptors. Instead, an analysis based on real chemical structures is favorable. Further, we find strong hints that molecular descriptors can be partitioned into distinct classes capturing complementary information.

Hyperglycaemia-induced pro-inflammatory responses by retinal Müller glia are regulated by the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE)

Aims/hypothesis: Up-regulation of the receptor for AGEs (RAGE) and its ligands in diabetes has been observed in various tissues. Here, we sought to determine levels of RAGE and one of its most important ligands, S100B, in diabetic retina, and to investigate the regulatory role of S100B and RAGE in Müller glia.

Methods: Streptozotocin-diabetes was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats. RAGE, S100B and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were detected in retinal cryosections. In parallel, the human retinal Müller cell line, MIO-M1, was maintained in normal glucose (5.5 mmol/l) or high glucose (25 mmol/l). RAGE knockdown was achieved using small interfering RNA (siRNA), while soluble RAGE was used as a competitive inhibitor of RAGE ligand binding. RAGE, S100B and cytokines were detected using quantitative RT-PCR, western blotting, cytokine protein arrays or ELISA. Activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) by RAGE was determined by western blotting.

Results: Compared with non-diabetic controls, RAGE and S100B were significantly elevated in the diabetic retina with apparent localisation in the Müller glia, occurring concomitantly with upregulation of GFAP. Exposure of MIO-M1 cells to high glucose induced increased production of RAGE and S100B. RAGE signalling via MAPK pathway was linked to cytokine production. Blockade of RAGE prevented cytokine responses induced by high glucose and S100B in Müller glia.

Conclusions/interpretation: Hyperglycaemia in vivo and in vitro exposure to high glucose induce upregulation of RAGE and its ligands, leading to RAGE signalling, which links to pro-inflammatory responses by retinal Müller glia. These data shed light on the potential clinical application of RAGE blockade to inhibit the progression of diabetic retinopathy.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) co-localize with AGE receptors in the retinal vasculature of diabetic and of AGE-infused rats

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs), formed from the nonenzymatic glycation of proteins and lipids with reducing sugars, have been implicated in many diabetic complications; however, their role in diabetic retinopathy remains largely unknown. Recent studies suggest that the cellular actions of AGEs may be mediated by AGE-specific receptors (AGE-R). We have examined the immunolocalization of AGEs and AGE-R components R1 and R2 in the retinal vasculature at 2, 4, and 8 months after STZ-induced diabetes as well as in nondiabetic rats infused with AGE bovine serum albumin for 2 weeks. Using polyclonal or monoclonal anti-AGE antibodies and polyclonal antibodies to recombinant AGE-R1 and AGE-R2, immunoreactivity (IR) was examined in the complete retinal vascular tree after isolation by trypsin digestion. After 2, 4, and 8 months of diabetes, there was a gradual increase in AGE IR in basement membrane. At 8 months, pericytes, smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells of the retinal vessels showed dense intracellular AGE IR. AGE epitopes stained most intensely within pericytes and smooth muscle cells but less in basement membrane of AGE-infused rats compared with the diabetic group. Retinas from normal or bovine-serum-albumin-infused rats were largely negative for AGE IR. AGE-R1 and -R2 co-localized strongly with AGEs of vascular endothelial cells, pericytes, and smooth muscle cells of either normal, diabetic, or AGE-infused rat retinas, and this distribution did not vary with each condition. The data indicate that AGEs accumulate as a function of diabetes duration first within the basement membrane and then intracellularly, co-localizing with cellular AGE-Rs. Significant AGE deposits appear within the pericytes after long-term diabetes or acute challenge with AGE infusion conditions associated with pericyte damage. Co-localization of AGEs and AGE-Rs in retinal cells points to possible interactions of pathogenic significance.

Normalisers, nest algebras and tensor products

We show that if $\cl A$ is the tensor product of finitely many continuous nest algebras, $\cl B$ is a CDCSL algebra and $\cl A$ and $\cl B$ have the same normaliser semi-group then either $\cl A = \cl B$ or $\cl A^* = \cl B$.

Tensor products of operator systems

The purpose of the present paper is to lay the foundations for a systematic study of tensor products of operator systems. After giving an axiomatic definition of tensor products in this category, we examine in detail several particular examples of tensor products, including a minimal, maximal, maximal commuting, maximal injective and some asymmetric tensor products. We characterize these tensor products in terms of their universal properties and give descriptions of their positive cones. We also characterize the corresponding tensor products of operator spaces induced by a certain canonical inclusion of an operator space into an operator system. We examine notions of nuclearity for our tensor products which, on the category of C*-algebras, reduce to the classical notion. We exhibit an operator system S which is not completely order isomorphic to a C*-algebra yet has the property that for every C*-algebra A, the minimal and maximal tensor product of S and A are equal.

Müller glial dysfunction during diabetic retinopathy in rats is linked to accumulation of advanced glycation end-products and advanced lipoxidation end-products.

Aims/hypothesis: The impact of AGEs and advanced lipoxidation end-products (ALEs) on neuronal and Müller glial dysfunction in the diabetic retina is not well understood. We therefore sought to identify dysfunction of the retinal Müller glia during diabetes and to determine whether inhibition of AGEs/ALEs can prevent it.

Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: (1) non-diabetic; (2) untreated streptozotocin-induced diabetic; and (3) diabetic treated with the AGE/ALE inhibitor pyridoxamine for the duration of diabetes. Rats were killed and their retinas were evaluated for neuroglial pathology. Results: AGEs and ALEs accumulated at higher levels in diabetic retinas than in controls (p<0.001). AGE/ALE immunoreactivity was significantly diminished by pyridoxamine treatment of diabetic rats. Diabetes was also associated with the up-regulation of the oxidative stress marker haemoxygenase-1 and the induction of glial fibrillary acidic protein production in Müller glia (p<0.001). Pyridoxamine treatment of diabetic rats had a significant beneficial effect on both variables (p<0.001). Diabetes also significantly altered the normal localisation of the potassium inwardly rectifying channel Kir4.1 and the water channel aquaporin 4 to the Müller glia end-feet interacting with retinal capillaries. These abnormalities were prevented by pyridoxamine treatment.

Conclusions/interpretation: While it is established that AGE/ALE formation in the retina during diabetes is linked to microvascular dysfunction, this study suggests that these pathogenic adducts also play a role in Müller glial dysfunction.

PARP inhibition induces BAX/BAK-independent synthetic lethality of BRCA1-deficient non-small cell lung cancer

Evasion of apoptosis contributes to both tumourigenesis and drug resistance in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The pro-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins BAX and BAK are critical regulators of mitochondrial apoptosis. New strategies for targeting NSCLC in a mitochondria-independent manner should bypass this common mechanism of apoptosis block. BRCA1 mutation frequency in lung cancer is low; however, decreased BRCA1 mRNA and protein expression levels have been reported in a significant proportion of lung adenocarcinomas. BRCA1 mutation/deficiency confers a defect in homologous recombination DNA repair that has been exploited by synthetic lethality through inhibition of PARP (PARPi) in breast and ovarian cells; however, it is not known whether this same synthetic lethal mechanism exists in NSCLC cells. Additionally, it is unknown whether the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway is required for BRCA1/PARPi-mediated synthetic lethality. Here we demonstrate that silencing of BRCA1 expression by RNA interference sensitizes NSCLC cells to PARP inhibition. Importantly, this sensitivity was not attenuated in cells harbouring mitochondrial apoptosis block induced by co-depletion of BAX and BAK. Furthermore, we demonstrate that BRCA1 inhibition cannot override platinum resistance, which is often mediated by loss of mitochondrial apoptosis signalling, but can still sensitize to PARP inhibition. Finally we demonstrate the existence of a BRCA1-deficient subgroup (11-19%) of NSCLC patients by analysing BRCA1 protein levels using immunohistochemistry in two independent primary NSCLC cohorts. Taken together, the existence of BRCA1-immunodeficient NSCLC suggests that this molecular subgroup could be effectively targeted by PARP inhibitors in the clinic and that PARP inhibitors could be used for the treatment of BRCA1-immunodeficient, platinum-resistant tumours. Copyright (C) 2011 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Use of synthetic peptides to locate novel integrin alpha(2)beta(1)-binding motifs in human collagen III

A set of 57 synthetic peptides encompassing the entire triple-helical domain of human collagen III was used to locate binding sites for the collagen-binding integrin alpha(2)beta(1). The capacity of the peptides to support Mg2+-dependent binding of several integrin preparations was examined. Wild-type integrins (recombinant alpha(2) I-domain, alpha(2)beta(1) purified from platelet membranes, and recombinant soluble alpha(2)beta(1) expressed as an alpha(2)-Fos/beta(1)-Jun heterodimer) bound well to only three peptides, two containing GXX'GER motifs (GROGER and GMOGER, where O is hydroxyproline) and one containing two adjacent GXX'GEN motifs (GLKGEN and GLOGEN). Two mutant alpha(2) I-domains were tested: the inactive T221A mutant, which recognized no peptides, and the constitutively active E318W mutant, which bound a larger subset of peptides. Adhesion of activated human platelets to GER-containing peptides was greater than that of resting platelets, and HT1080 cells bound well to more of the peptides compared with platelets. Binding of cells and recombinant proteins was abolished by anti-alpha(2) monoclonal antibody 6F1 and by chelation of Mg2+. We describe two novel high affinity integrin-binding motifs in human collagen III (GROGER and GLOGEN) and a third motif (GLKGEN) that displays intermediate activity. Each motif was verified using shorter synthetic peptides.

Developments in the production of biological and synthetic binders for immunoassay and sensor-based detection of small molecules

The need for chemical and biological entities of predetermined selectivity and affinity towards target analytes is greater than ever, in applications such as environmental monitoring, bioterrorism detection and analysis of natural toxin contaminants in the food chain.

Dynamic pricing models for used products in remanufacturing with lost-sales and uncertain quality

In this paper, we investigate the remanufacturing problem of pricing single-class used products (cores) in the face of random price-dependent returns and random demand. Specifically, we propose a dynamic pricing policy for the cores and then model the problem as a continuous-time Markov decision process. Our models are designed to address three objectives: finite horizon total cost minimization, infinite horizon discounted cost, and average cost minimization. Besides proving optimal policy uniqueness and establishing monotonicity results for the infinite horizon problem, we also characterize the structures of the optimal policies, which can greatly simplify the computational procedure. Finally, we use computational examples to assess the impacts of specific parameters on optimal price and reveal the benefits of a dynamic pricing policy. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A revised structure for alkaloid 235C isolated from skin extracts of mantellid (Mantella) frogs of Madagascar

Madagascan frogs of the mantellid genus Mantella have been a rich source of alkaloids derived from dietary arthropods. Two species of frogs, inhabiting swamp forest, contain a unique set of alkaloids, previously proposed, based only on GC-MS and GC-FTIR data, to represent dehydro analogues of the homopumiliotoxins. The major alkaloid of this set, alkaloid 235C (2), now has been isolated in sufficient quantities (ca. 0.3 mg) to allow determination of the structure by NMR analysis. The structure of alkaloid 235C proved to be a 7,8-dehydro-8-desmethylpumiliotoxin. A comparison is presented between the mass, infrared, and H-1 NMR spectra of 235C (2) and a synthetic dehydrohomopumiliotoxin (1), initially proposed incorrectly as the structure for 235C.