Abiotic synthesis of amino acids in the recesses of the oceanic lithosphere.

Abiotic hydrocarbons and carboxylic acids are known to be formed on Earth, notably during the hydrothermal alteration of mantle rocks. Although the abiotic formation of amino acids has been predicted both from experimental studies and thermodynamic calculations, its occurrence has not been demonstrated in terrestrial settings. Here, using a multimodal approach that combines high-resolution imaging techniques, we obtain evidence for the occurrence of aromatic amino acids formed abiotically and subsequently preserved at depth beneath the Atlantis Massif (Mid-Atlantic Ridge). These aromatic amino acids may have been formed through Friedel-Crafts reactions catalysed by an iron-rich saponite clay during a late alteration stage of the massif serpentinites. Demonstrating the potential of fluid-rock interactions in the oceanic lithosphere to generate amino acids abiotically gives credence to the hydrothermal theory for the origin of life, and may shed light on ancient metabolisms and the functioning of the present-day deep biosphere.

Multimodal Imaging Mass Spectrometry to Identify Markers of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Human Lung Tissue Using MALDI-ToF, ToF-SIMS, and Hybrid SIMS.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare and deadly disease affecting roughly 15-60 people per million in Europe with a poorly understood pathology. There are currently no diagnostic tools for early detection nor does a curative treatment exist. The lipid composition of arteries in lung tissue samples from human PAH and control patients were investigated using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) combined with time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) imaging. Using random forests as an IMS data analysis technique, it was possible to identify the ion at m/z 885.6 as a marker of PAH in human lung tissue. The m/z 885.6 ion intensity was shown to be significantly higher around diseased arteries and was confirmed to be a diacylglycerophosphoinositol PI(C18:0/C20:4) via MS/MS using a novel hybrid SIMS instrument. The discovery of a potential biomarker opens up new research avenues which may finally lead to a better understanding of the PAH pathology and highlights the vital role IMS can play in modern biomedical research.

An Integrative Approach to Decipher the Chemical Antagonism between the Competing Endophytes Paraconiothyrium variabile and Bacillus subtilis.

An integrative approach combining traditional natural products chemistry, molecular networking, and mass spectrometry imaging has been undertaken to decipher the molecular dialogue between the fungus Paraconiothyrium variabile and the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which were isolated as endophytes from the conifer Cephalotaxus harringtonia and are characterized by a strong and mutual antibiosis. From this study, we highlight that bacterial surfactins and a fungal tetronic acid are involved in such competition and that the fungus is able to hydrolyze surfactins to fight against the bacterial partner.

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging of biological samples with delayed extraction for high mass and high spatial resolutions.

RATIONALE: In Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), pulsed and focused primary ion beams enable mass spectrometry imaging, a method which is particularly useful to map various small molecules such as lipids at the surface of biological samples. When using TOF-SIMS instruments, the focusing modes of the primary ion beam delivered by liquid metal ion guns can provide either a mass resolution of several thousand or a sub-µm lateral resolution, but the combination of both is generally not possible. METHODS: With a TOF-SIMS setup, a delayed extraction applied to secondary ions has been studied extensively on rat cerebellum sections in order to compensate for the effect of long primary ion bunches. RESULTS: The use of a delayed extraction has been proven to be an efficient solution leading to unique features, i.e. a mass resolution up to 10000 at m/z 385.4 combined with a lateral resolution of about 400 nm. Simulations of ion trajectories confirm the experimental determination of optimal delayed extraction and allow understanding of the behavior of ions as a function of their mass-to-charge ratio. CONCLUSIONS: Although the use of a delayed extraction has been well known for many years and is very popular in MALDI, it is much less used in TOF-SIMS. Its full characterization now enables secondary ion images to be recorded in a single run with a submicron spatial resolution and with a mass resolution of several thousand. This improvement is very useful when analyzing lipids on tissue sections, or rare, precious, or very small size samples.

Analysis of Chemotherapeutic Drug Delivery at the Single Cell Level Using 3D-MSI-TOF-SIMS.

In this work, we show the advantages of label-free, tridimensional mass spectrometry imaging using dual beam analysis (25 keV Bi3+) and depth profiling (20 keV with a distribution centered at Ar1500+) coupled to time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (3D-MSI-TOF-SIMS) for the study of A-172 human glioblastoma cell line treated with B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) inhibitor ABT-737. The high spatial (~250 nm) and high mass resolution (m/Δm ~10,000) of TOF-SIMS permitted the localization and identification of the intact, unlabeled drug molecular ion (m/z 811.26 C42H44ClN6O5S2- [M - H]-) as well as characteristic fragment ions. We propose a novel approach based on the inspection of the drug secondary ion yield, which showed a good correlation with the drug concentration during cell treatment at therapeutic dosages (0-200 µM with 4 h incubation). Chemical maps using endogenous molecular markers showed that the ABT-737 is mainly localized in subsurface regions and absent in the nucleus. A semiquantitative workflow is proposed to account for the biological cell diversity based on the spatial distribution of endogenous molecular markers (e.g., nuclei and cytoplasm) and secondary ion confirmation based on the ratio of drug-specific fragments to molecular ion as a function of the therapeutic dosage. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Mapping Dicorynia guianensis Amsh. wood constituents by submicron resolution cluster-TOF-SIMS imaging.

The preparation of tropical wood surface sections for time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging is described, and the use of delayed extraction of secondary ions and its interest for the analysis of vegetal surface are shown. The method has been applied to the study by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging with a resolution of less than one micron of a tropical wood species, Dicorynia guianensis, which is one of the most exploited wood in French Guiana for its durable heartwood. The heartwood of this species exhibits an economical importance, but its production is not controlled in forestry. Results show an increase of tryptamine from the transition zone and a concomitant decrease of inorganic ions and starch fragment ions. These experiments lead to a better understanding of the heartwood formation and the origin of the natural durability of D. guianensis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.