Zinc oxide nanoparticles-doped curcumin-assisted recovery of rheumatoid arthritis and antioxidant status in experimental rabbits.

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation and synovial joint destruction. Aims: The current study investigated the possible beneficial effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles doped curcumin (ZnONPs-DC) on the recovery of RA and antioxidant status of experimental rabbits. Methods: RA was induced in experimental rabbits by injecting complete Freund's adjuvant and collagen type-II emulsion (100 µL/kg body weight) in the base of their tail. Arthritic rabbits were orally treated with ZnONPs, curcumin, and ZnONPs-DC(250 µL/kg bodyweight). Serumsamples fromthe control and study groupswere collected before and afterRAinduction and after treatment. The sera were subjected to analysis of biological markers of RA and antioxidant status. Results: The complete Freund's adjuvant and collagen type II treatment resulted in positive rheumatoid factor and C-reactive protein elevated oxidative stress and decreased antioxidant potential. Each treatment showed the absence of rheumatoid factor and C-reactive protein decreased oxidative stress and improved antioxidant potential compared to the control. However, ZnONPs-DC treatment showed a comparatively higher decline in serum malondialdehyde MDA content and an elevation in the antioxidant activity of RA animals. Conclusions: In conclusion, using zinc oxide nanoparticles-doped curcumin may be an effective anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory drug in controlling RA.

Detection of Carbofuran-Protein Adducts in Serum of Occupationally Exposed Pesticide Factory Workers in Pakistan.

This study was conducted to investigate the protein adducts with pesticides in a cohort of 172 factory workers that were exposed to a mixture of pesticides. The 35 samples showing considerable variation in biochemical parameters, i.e., butyrylcholinestrase (BChE), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP/ALKP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine phosphokinase (CPK) enzymes, and controls were analyzed by reversed-phase nanoscale liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (nLC-MS/MS) on an Orbitrap mass spectrometer employing a shotgun proteomics approach. Only protein adducts with carbofuran were found on serum proteins of these workers. These adducts were of carbofuran labeled lysine (Lys-142, Lys-183, Lys-287, and Lys-467), arginine (Arg-210, Arg-242, and Arg-256) from serum albumin, and serine (Ser-07, Ser-54, and Ser-150) from immunoglobulin proteins. The arginine residues (Arg-210, Arg-242, Arg-246, and Arg-434) from albumin were also found to be glycated in serum of workers showing a high level of glucose who also had glycated arginine (Arg-1120) modified with carbofuran in their tankyrase-1-binding protein. The number of tandem mass spectra of modified peptides increased with increasing time of exposure. This is the first report to demonstrate the presence of carbofuran-labeled albumin, immunoglobulin, and glycated arginine, which shows that lysine and arginine of human albumin and serine of immunoglobulin are covalently modified in the serum of workers that were occupationally exposed to carbofuran, and the modification is detectable by tandem mass spectrometry. These peptides modified with carbofuran can potentially be used as a biomarker of carbofuran exposure.

Ceria-based nanocomposites for the enrichment and identification of phosphopeptides.

Nanocomposites are given preference over the individual materials due to the combined properties of the components involved. Ceria has a high efficiency in phosphopeptide enrichment as well as in dephosphorylation. Iron oxide and tin oxide are chosen as counter metal oxides to synthesize the ceria nanocomposites using a co-precipitation method. The nanocomposites are characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Tryptic ß-casein digest shows the feasibility of phosphopeptide enrichment by the two nanocomposites. Selectivity studies show their performance in comparison to ceria. Being more selective in the extended mass range, both nanocomposites are applied to spiked human serum and non-fat milk digest. The ceria nanocomposites are also capable of being used as material-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (MELDI) carrier/affinity materials for real biological samples with varying degrees of complexity. The enriched content is analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS. All the phosphopeptides in all variants of casein are identified. The sequence coverage of caseins is also interpreted. Nanocomposites thus offer a high selectivity and sensitivity, which make them promising materials for biomarker discoveries and the identification of phosphorylation pathways for new post translational modifications (PTMs).