Quantitative Isotopomer Rates in Real-Time Metabolism of Cells Determined by NMR Methods.

Tracer-based metabolism is becoming increasingly important for studying metabolic mechanisms in cells. NMR spectroscopy offers several approaches to measure label incorporation in metabolites, including 13 C- and 1 H-detected spectra. The latter are generally more sensitive, but quantification depends on the proton-carbon 1 JCH coupling constant, which varies significantly between different metabolites. It is therefore not possible to have one experiment optimised for all metabolites, and quantification of 1 H-edited spectra such as HSQCs requires precise knowledge of coupling constants. Increasing interest in tracer-based and metabolic flux analysis requires robust analyses with reasonably small acquisition times. Herein, we compare 13 C-filtered and 13 C-edited methods for quantification and show the applicability of the methods for real-time NMR spectroscopy of cancer-cell metabolism, in which label incorporations are subject to constant flux. We find an approach using a double filter to be most suitable and sufficiently robust to reliably obtain 13 C incorporations from difference spectra. This is demonstrated for JJN3 multiple myeloma cells processing glucose over 24 h. The proposed method is equally well suited for calculating the level of label incorporation in labelled cell extracts in the context of metabolic flux analysis.

Probing platinum azido complexes by 14N and 15N NMR spectroscopy.

Metal azido complexes are of general interest due to their high energetic properties, and platinum azido complexes in particular because of their potential as photoactivatable anticancer prodrugs. However, azido ligands are difficult to probe by NMR spectroscopy due to the quadrupolar nature of (14)N and the lack of scalar (1)H coupling to enhance the sensitivity of the less abundant (15)N by using polarisation transfer. In this work, we report (14)N and (15)N NMR spectroscopic studies of cis,trans,cis-[Pt(N(3))(2)(OH)(2)(NH(3))] (1) and trans,trans,trans-[Pt(N(3))(2)(OH)(2)(X)(Y)], where X=Y=NH(3) (2); X=NH(3), Y=py (3) (py=pyridine); X=Y=py (4); and selected Pt(II) precursors. These studies provide the first (15)N NMR data for azido groups in coordination complexes. We discuss one- and three-bond J((15)N,(195)Pt) couplings for azido and am(m)ine ligands. The (14)N(α) (coordinated azido nitrogen) signal in the Pt(IV) azido complexes is extremely broad (W(1/2)≈2124 Hz for 4) in comparison to other metal azido complexes, attributable to a highly asymmetrical electric field gradient at the (14)N(α) atom. Through the use of anti-ringing pulse sequences, the (14)N NMR spectra, which show resolution of the broad (14)N(α) peak, were obtained rapidly (e.g., 1.5 h for 10 mM 4). The linewidths of the (14)N(α) signals correlate with the viscosity of the solvent. For (15) N-enriched samples, it is possible to detect azido (15)N resonances directly, which will allow photoreactions to be followed by 1D (15)N NMR spectroscopy. The T(1) relaxation times for 3 and 4 were in the range 5.7-120 s for (15)N, and 0.9-11.3 ms for (14)N. Analysis of the (1)J((15)N,(195)Pt) coupling constants suggests that an azido ligand has a moderately strong trans influence in octahedral Pt(IV) complexes, within the series 2-pic