Anodic electrodissolution: a low-cost alternative for carbon steel sample preparation for quantification of metals by ICP-MS.

A fast and low-cost method using electrolysis for sample preparation of carbon steel present in weld electrodes aiming to achieve quantification of heavy metals by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was developed. Conditions of the electrolysis, such as pH and electrical charge were investigated to improve the solubility and concentration of the analytes in the electrolyte. The method showed high reproducibility, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 3.05%, and the recovery from 88.6 to 108.9% for the analytes demonstrates the accuracy of the developed method.

Mass spectrometry applied to diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic targets identification for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2: A review.

Mass spectrometry (MS) has found numerous applications in medicine and has been widely used in the detection and characterization of biomolecules associated with viral infections such as COVID-19. COVID-19 is a multisystem disease and, therefore, the need arises to carry out a careful and conclusive assessment of the pathophysiological parameters involved in the infection, to develop an effective therapeutic approach, assess the prognosis of the disease, and especially the early diagnosis of the infected population. Thus, the urgent need for highly accurate methods of diagnosis and prognosis of this infection presents new challenges for the development of laboratory medicine, whose methods require sensitivity, speed, and accuracy of the techniques for analyzing the biological markers involved in the infection. In this context, MS stands out as a robust analytical tool, with high sensitivity and selectivity, accuracy, low turnaround time, and versatility for the analysis of biological samples. However, it has not yet been adopted as a frontline clinical laboratory technique. Therefore, this review explores the potential and trends of current MS methods and their contribution to the development of new strategies to COVID-19 diagnosis and prognosis and how this tool can assist in the discovery of new therapeutic targets, in addition, to comment what could be the future of MS in medicine.