ABSTRACT
The highly variable response rates to immunotherapies underscore our limited knowledge about how tumors can manipulate immune cells. Here the membrane topology of natural killer (NK) cells from patients with liver cancer showed that intratumoral NK cells have fewer membrane protrusions compared with liver NK cells outside tumors and with peripheral NK cells. Dysregulation of these protrusions prevented intratumoral NK cells from recognizing tumor cells, from forming lytic immunological synapses and from killing tumor cells. The membranes of intratumoral NK cells have altered sphingomyelin (SM) content and dysregulated serine metabolism in tumors contributed to the decrease in SM levels of intratumoral NK cells. Inhibition of SM biosynthesis in peripheral NK cells phenocopied the disrupted membrane topology and cytotoxicity of the intratumoral NK cells. Targeting sphingomyelinase confers powerful antitumor efficacy, both as a monotherapy and as a combination therapy with checkpoint blockade.
Subject(s)
Killer Cells, Natural , Liver Neoplasms , Humans , Immunological Synapses , Cytotoxicity, ImmunologicABSTRACT
Sunlight exposure is known to affect mood, learning, and cognition. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we show that moderate UV exposure elevated blood urocanic acid (UCA), which then crossed the blood-brain barrier. Single-cell mass spectrometry and isotopic labeling revealed a novel intra-neuronal metabolic pathway converting UCA to glutamate (GLU) after UV exposure. This UV-triggered GLU synthesis promoted its packaging into synaptic vesicles and its release at glutamatergic terminals in the motor cortex and hippocampus. Related behaviors, like rotarod learning and object recognition memory, were enhanced after UV exposure. All UV-induced metabolic, electrophysiological, and behavioral effects could be reproduced by the intravenous injection of UCA and diminished by the application of inhibitor or short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against urocanase, an enzyme critical for the conversion of UCA to GLU. These findings reveal a new GLU biosynthetic pathway, which could contribute to some of the sunlight-induced neurobehavioral changes.
Subject(s)
Brain/radiation effects , Glutamic Acid/biosynthesis , Learning/radiation effects , Memory/radiation effects , Ultraviolet Rays , Animals , Brain/metabolism , Brain/pathology , Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Neurons/cytology , Neurons/physiology , Patch-Clamp Techniques , RNA Interference , RNA, Small Interfering/metabolism , Tandem Mass Spectrometry , Urocanate Hydratase/antagonists & inhibitors , Urocanate Hydratase/genetics , Urocanate Hydratase/metabolism , Urocanic Acid/blood , Urocanic Acid/metabolismABSTRACT
Enhancing the response to interferon could offer an immunological advantage to the host. In support of this concept, we used a modified form of the transcription factor STAT1 to achieve hyper-responsiveness to interferon without toxicity and markedly improve antiviral function in transgenic mice and transduced human cells. We found that the improvement depended on expression of a PARP9-DTX3L complex with distinct domains for interaction with STAT1 and for activity as an E3 ubiquitin ligase that acted on host histone H2BJ to promote interferon-stimulated gene expression and on viral 3C proteases to degrade these proteases via the immunoproteasome. Thus, PARP9-DTX3L acted on host and pathogen to achieve a double layer of immunity within a safe reserve in the interferon signaling pathway.
Subject(s)
Cysteine Endopeptidases/metabolism , Histones/metabolism , Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases/metabolism , Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/metabolism , Viral Proteins/metabolism , 3C Viral Proteases , Animals , Cell Line , Cell Nucleus/metabolism , Encephalomyocarditis virus/physiology , HEK293 Cells , Host-Pathogen Interactions , Humans , Immunoblotting , Interferon-beta/pharmacology , Interferon-gamma/pharmacology , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Mice, Transgenic , Microscopy, Confocal , Mutation , Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases/genetics , Protein Binding , RNA Interference , RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase , STAT1 Transcription Factor/genetics , STAT1 Transcription Factor/metabolism , Signal Transduction , Transcriptome/drug effects , Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/geneticsABSTRACT
Lysosomes are critical for cellular metabolism and are heterogeneously involved in various cellular processes. The ability to measure lysosomal metabolic heterogeneity is essential for understanding their physiological roles. We therefore built a single-lysosome mass spectrometry (SLMS) platform integrating lysosomal patch-clamp recording and induced nano-electrospray ionization (nanoESI)/mass spectrometry (MS) that enables concurrent metabolic and electrophysiological profiling of individual enlarged lysosomes. The accuracy and reliability of this technique were validated by supporting previous findings, such as the transportability of lysosomal cationic amino acids transporters such as PQLC2 and the lysosomal trapping of lysosomotropic, hydrophobic weak base drugs such as lidocaine. We derived metabolites from single lysosomes in various cell types and classified lysosomes into five major subpopulations based on their chemical and biological divergence. Senescence and carcinoma altered metabolic profiles of lysosomes in a type-specific manner. Thus, SLMS can open more avenues for investigating heterogeneous lysosomal metabolic changes during physiological and pathological processes.
Subject(s)
Lysosomes/metabolism , Metabolomics/methods , Patch-Clamp Techniques , Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization/methods , Amino Acid Transport Systems/metabolism , Amino Acid Transport Systems, Basic/genetics , Amino Acid Transport Systems, Basic/metabolism , Cellular Senescence , Fibroblasts/cytology , Fibroblasts/metabolism , Green Fluorescent Proteins/genetics , Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism , HEK293 Cells , Humans , Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions , Lidocaine/chemistry , Lidocaine/metabolism , Reproducibility of Results , Signal-To-Noise Ratio , Urinary Bladder Neoplasms/metabolism , Urinary Bladder Neoplasms/pathologyABSTRACT
The leukocyte NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2) plays a key role in pathogen killing and immunoregulation. Genetic defects in NOX2 result in chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), associated with microbial infections and inflammatory disorders, often involving the lung. Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are the predominant immune cell in the airways at steady state, and limiting their activation is important, given the constant exposure to inhaled materials, yet the importance of NOX2 in this process is not well understood. In this study, we showed a previously undescribed role for NOX2 in maintaining lung homeostasis by suppressing AM activation, in CGD mice or mice with selective loss of NOX2 preferentially in macrophages. AMs lacking NOX2 had increased cytokine responses to Toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2) and TLR4 stimulation ex vivo. Moreover, between 4 and 12 week of age, mice with global NOX2 deletion developed an activated CD11bhigh subset of AMs with epigenetic and transcriptional profiles reflecting immune activation compared with WT AMs. The presence of CD11bhigh AMs in CGD mice correlated with an increased number of alveolar neutrophils and proinflammatory cytokines at steady state and increased lung inflammation after insults. Moreover, deletion of NOX2 preferentially in macrophages was sufficient for mice to develop an activated CD11bhigh AM subset and accompanying proinflammatory sequelae. In addition, we showed that the altered resident macrophage transcriptional profile in the absence of NOX2 is tissue specific, as those changes were not seen in resident peritoneal macrophages. Thus, these data demonstrate that the absence of NOX2 in alveolar macrophages leads to their proinflammatory remodeling and dysregulates alveolar homeostasis.
Subject(s)
Granulomatous Disease, Chronic , Lung , Macrophages, Alveolar , NADPH Oxidase 2 , Animals , Cytokines , Granulomatous Disease, Chronic/genetics , Homeostasis , Lung/physiology , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , NADPH Oxidase 2/geneticsABSTRACT
Aspergillus fumigatus is an important opportunistic fungal pathogen and causes invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in conditions with compromised innate antifungal immunity, including chronic granulomatous disease, which results from inherited deficiency of the superoxide-generating leukocyte NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2). Derivative oxidants have both antimicrobial and immunoregulatory activity and, in the context of A. fumigatus, contribute to both fungal killing and dampening inflammation induced by fungal cell walls. As the relative roles of macrophage versus neutrophil NOX2 in the host response to A. fumigatus are incompletely understood, we studied mice with conditional deletion of NOX2. When NOX2 was absent in alveolar macrophages as a result of LysM-Cre-mediated deletion, germination of inhaled A. fumigatus conidia was increased. Reducing NOX2 activity specifically in neutrophils via S100a8 (MRP8)-Cre also increased fungal burden, which was inversely proportional to the level of neutrophil NOX2 activity. Moreover, diminished NOX2 in neutrophils synergized with corticosteroid immunosuppression to impair lung clearance of A. fumigatus. Neutrophil-specific reduction in NOX2 activity also enhanced acute inflammation induced by inhaled sterile fungal cell walls. These results advance understanding into cell-specific roles of NOX2 in the host response to A. fumigatus. We show that alveolar macrophage NOX2 is a nonredundant effector that limits germination of inhaled A. fumigatus conidia. In contrast, reducing NOX2 activity only in neutrophils is sufficient to enhance inflammation to fungal cell walls as well as to promote invasive A. fumigatus. This may be relevant in clinical settings with acquired defects in NOX2 activity due to underlying conditions, which overlap risk factors for invasive aspergillosis.
Subject(s)
Aspergillus fumigatus , Neutrophils , Mice , Animals , NADPH Oxidase 2/genetics , Macrophages , InflammationABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Reducing production costs while producing high-quality livestock and poultry products is an ongoing concern in the livestock industry. The addition of oil to livestock and poultry diets can enhance feed palatability and improve growth performance. Emulsifiers can be used as potential feed supplements to improve dietary energy utilization and maintain the efficient productivity of broilers. Therefore, further investigation is warranted to evaluate whether dietary emulsifier supplementation can improve the efficiency of fat utilization in the diet of yellow-feathered broilers. In the present study, the effects of adding emulsifier to the diet on lipid metabolism and the performance of yellow-feathered broilers were tested. A total of 240 yellow-feasted broilers (21-day-old) were randomly divided into 4 groups (6 replicates per group, 10 broilers per replicate, half male and half female within each replicate). The groups were as follows: the control group (fed with basal diet), the group fed with basal diet supplemented with 500 mg/kg emulsifier, the group fed with a reduced oil diet (reduced by 1%) supplemented with 500 mg/kg emulsifier, and the group fed with a reduced oil diet supplemented with 500 mg/kg emulsifier. The trial lasted for 42 days, during which the average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and feed-to-gain ratio were measured. Additionally, the expression levels of lipid metabolism-related genes in the liver, abdominal fat and each intestinal segment were assessed. RESULTS: The results showed that compared with the basal diet group, (1) The average daily gain of the basal diet + 500 mg/kg emulsifier group significantly increased (P < 0.05), and the half-even-chamber rate was significantly increased (P < 0.05); (2) The mRNA expression levels of Cd36, Dgat2, Apob, Fatp4, Fabp2, and Mttp in the small intestine were significantly increased (P < 0.05). (3) Furthermore, liver TG content significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and the mRNA expression level of Fasn in liver was significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while the expression of Apob, Lpl, Cpt-1, and Pparα significantly increased (P < 0.05). (4) The mRNA expression levels of Lpl and Fatp4 in adipose tissue were significantly increased (P < 0.05), while the expression of Atgl was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). (5) Compared with the reduced oil diet group, the half-evading rate and abdominal fat rate of broilers in the reduced oil diet + 500 mg/kg emulsifier group were significantly increased (P < 0.05), and the serum level of LDL-C increased significantly (P < 0.05)0.6) The mRNA expression levels of Cd36, Fatp4, Dgat2, Apob, and Mttp in the small intestine were significantly increased (P < 0.05). 7) The mRNA expression levels of Fasn and Acc were significantly decreased in the liver (P < 0.05), while the mRNA expression levels of Lpin1, Dgat2, Apob, Lpl, Cpt-1, and Pparα were significantly increased (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that dietary emulsifier can enhance the fat utilization efficiency of broilers by increasing the small intestinal fatty acid uptake capacity, inhibiting hepatic fatty acid synthesis and promoting hepatic TG synthesis and transport capacity. This study provides valuable insights for the potential use of emulsifier supplementation to improve the performance of broiler chickens.
Subject(s)
Animal Feed , Chickens , Diet , Dietary Supplements , Emulsifying Agents , Lipid Metabolism , Animals , Chickens/metabolism , Lipid Metabolism/drug effects , Emulsifying Agents/pharmacology , Animal Feed/analysis , Male , Female , Diet/veterinary , Liver/metabolism , Liver/drug effectsABSTRACT
The mechanisms whereby protein ions are released from nanodroplets at the liquid-gas interface have continued to be controversial since electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry was widely applied in biomolecular structure analysis in solution. Several viable pathways have been proposed and verified for single-domain proteins. However, the ESI mechanism of multi-domain proteins with more complicated and flexible structures remains unclear. Herein, dumbbell-shaped calmodulin was chosen as a multi-domain protein model to perform molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the structural evolution during the ESI process. For [Ca4CAM], the protein followed the classical charge residue model. As the inter-domain electrostatic repulsion increased, the droplet was found to split into two sub-droplets, while stronger-repulsive apo-calmodulin unfolded during the early evaporation stage. We designated this novel ESI mechanism as the domain repulsion model, which provides new mechanistic insights into further exploration of proteins containing more domains. Our results suggest that greater attention should be paid to the effect of domain-domain interactions on structure retention during liquid-gas interface transfer when mass spectrometry is used as the developing technique in gas phase structural biology.
Subject(s)
Calmodulin , Molecular Dynamics Simulation , Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization , Static ElectricityABSTRACT
The unique thermodynamic and kinetic coordination chemistry of ruthenium allows it to modulate key adverse aggregation and membrane interactions of α-synuclein (α-syn) associated with Parkinson's disease. We show that the low-toxic RuIII complex trans-[ImH][RuCl4 (Me2 SO)(Im)] (NAMI-A) has dual inhibitory effects on both aggregation and membrane interactions of α-syn with submicromolar affinity, and disassembles pre-formed fibrils. NAMI-A abolishes the cytotoxicity of α-syn towards neuronal cells and mitigates neurodegeneration and motor impairments in a rat model of Parkinson's. Multinuclear NMR and MS analyses show that NAMI-A binds to residues involved in protein aggregation and membrane binding. NMR studies reveal the key steps in pro-drug activation and the effect of activated NAMI-A species on protein folding. Our findings provide a new basis for designing ruthenium complexes which could mitigate α-syn-induced Parkinson's pathology differently from organic agents.
Subject(s)
Organometallic Compounds , Parkinson Disease , Ruthenium , Rats , Animals , alpha-Synuclein/chemistry , Parkinson Disease/pathology , Ruthenium/pharmacology , Ruthenium/chemistry , Organometallic Compounds/chemistryABSTRACT
Native mass spectrometry, which takes a high concentration of ammonium acetate (NH4OAc) for ionization, coupled with tedious and solvent-consuming purification, which separates proteins from complicated environments, has shown great potential for proteins and their complexes. A high level of nonvolatile salts in the endogenous intracellular environment results in serious ion suppression and has been one of the bottlenecks for native mass spectrometry, especially for protein complexes. Herein, an integrated protocol utilizing the inner surface of a micropipette for rapid purification, desorption, and ionization of peptide-metal interaction at subfemtomole level in cell lysate was demonstrated for native mass spectrometry. The methods showed robust and reproducibility in protein measurement within 1 min from various buffers. The E. coli cells expressing with various proteins were lysed and used to test our method. The specific interaction between the peptide-metal complex in cell lysates could be reserved and distinguished by mass spectrometry.
Subject(s)
Escherichia coli , Salts , Buffers , Escherichia coli/metabolism , Mass Spectrometry , Metals , Peptides/analysis , Proteins/chemistry , Reproducibility of Results , Salts/chemistry , Solvents , Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization/methodsABSTRACT
Leukocyte reduced NADP (NADPH) oxidase plays a key role in host defense and immune regulation. Genetic defects in NADPH oxidase result in chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), characterized by recurrent bacterial and fungal infections and aberrant inflammation. Key drivers of hyperinflammation induced by fungal cell walls in CGD are still incompletely defined. In this study, we found that CGD (CYBB-) neutrophils produced higher amounts of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) in vitro after activation with zymosan or immune complexes, compared with wild-type (WT) neutrophils. This finding correlated with increased calcium influx in CGD neutrophils, which was restrained in WT neutrophils by the electrogenic activity of NADPH oxidase. Increased LTB4 generation by CGD neutrophils was also augmented by paracrine cross talk with the LTB4 receptor BLT1. CGD neutrophils formed more numerous and larger clusters in the presence of zymosan in vitro compared with WT cells, and the effect was also LTB4- and BLT1-dependent. In zymosan-induced lung inflammation, focal neutrophil infiltrates were increased in CGD compared with WT mice and associated with higher LTB4 levels. Inhibiting LTB4 synthesis or antagonizing the BLT1 receptor after zymosan challenge reduced lung neutrophil recruitment in CGD to WT levels. Thus, LTB4 was the major driver of excessive neutrophilic lung inflammation in CGD mice in the early response to fungal cell walls, likely by a dysregulated feed-forward loop involving amplified neutrophil production of LTB4. This study identifies neutrophil LTB4 generation as a target of NADPH oxidase regulation, which could potentially be exploited therapeutically to reduce excessive inflammation in CGD.
Subject(s)
Cell Wall/immunology , Fungi/immunology , NADPH Oxidases/genetics , NADPH Oxidases/metabolism , Neutrophil Infiltration/genetics , Neutrophils/metabolism , Receptors, Leukotriene B4/metabolism , Animals , Calcium , Disease Models, Animal , Disease Susceptibility , Mice , Mycoses/genetics , Mycoses/immunology , Mycoses/metabolism , Mycoses/microbiology , Neutrophil Infiltration/immunology , Neutrophils/immunology , Neutrophils/pathology , Oxidation-Reduction , Oxidative Stress , Protein Binding , Signal TransductionABSTRACT
The ultrastrongly coupling (USC) system has very important research significance in quantum simulation and quantum computing. In this paper, the ultranarrow spectrum of a circuit QED system with two qubits ultrastrongly coupled to a single-mode cavity is studied. In the regime of USC, the JC model breaks down and the counter-rotating terms in the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian leads to the level anti-crossing in the energy spectrum. Choosing a single-photon driving field at the point of avoided-level crossing, we can get an equivalent four-level dressed state model, in which the dissipation of the two intermediate states is only related to the qubits decay. Due to the electron shelving of these two metastable states, a narrow peak appears in the cavity emission spectrum. Furthermore, we find that the physical origin for the spectral narrowing is the vacuum-induced quantum interference between two transition pathways. And this interference effect couples the slowly decaying incoherent components of the density matrix into the equations of the sidebands. This result provides a possibility for the study of quantum interference effect in the USC system.
ABSTRACT
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the laser-detected magnetic resonance spectra dressed by a radio-frequency magnetic field in Fg = 4 of D1 line of cesium atoms. The analytical expression of the transmission spectrum for magnetic resonance dressed by a radio-frequency magnetic field is derived and has substantial agreement with the transmission spectra observed in the experiment. The theoretical prediction of the ratio of the amplitudes of the two sidebands with the detuning is basically consistent with the experimental data, which confirms the validity of the analytical expression. The separation between the two sidebands under resonance shows a highly linear proportion to the amplitude of the dressing field, which may provide a useful scheme for the measurement of radio-frequency magnetic field and magnetic imaging.
ABSTRACT
The intensity-amplitude correlation functions for a driven cavity QED system with two non-identical atoms are investigated in this paper. With the support of conditional homodyne detection, one can detect the time-dependent intensity-amplitude correlation functions experimentally. We find time-asymmetry in this correlation when the driving field is tuned to be resonant with the two-photon excitation state, which brings non-Gaussian fluctuations. The physical origin of these phenomena is the distinction of the third-order moment based on complete-collapse and partial-collapse, which corresponds to the measuring sequence of the intensity and amplitude. Finally, we also examined the nonclassical features of the system, which always exhibits photon bunching. The squeezing occurs in the region of weak driving and disappears with the increase of driving strength. Hence, a new classical inequality based on the technique of homodyne cross-correlation measurement is introduced to determine the nonclassicality of the non-Gaussian system in the region of unsqueezing.
ABSTRACT
Multifold wave-particle quantum correlations are studied in strongly correlated three-photon emissions from the Mollow triplet via frequency engineering. The nonclassicality and the non-Gaussianity of the filtered field are discussed by correlating intensity signal and correlated balanced homodyne signals. Due to the non-Gaussian fluctuations in the Mollow triplet, new forms of the criterion of nonclassicality for non-Gaussian radiation are proposed by introducing intensity-dual quadrature correlation functions, which contain the information about strongly correlated three-photon emissions of the Mollow triplet. In addition, the time-dependent dynamics of non-Gaussian fluctuations of the filtered field is studied, which displays conspicuous asymmetry. Physically, the asymmetrical evolution of non-Gaussian fluctuations can be attributed to the different transition dynamics of the laser-dressed quantum emitter revealed by the past quantum state and conditional quantum state. Compared with the conventional three-photon intensity correlations that unilaterally reflect the particle properties of radiation, the multifold wave-particle correlation functions we proposed may convey more information about wave-particle duality of radiation, such as the quantum coherence of photon triplet and "which-path" in cascaded photon emissions in atomic systems.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Recent studies have highlighted the important role of long non-coding RNA SNHG16 in various human cancers. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the effect of SNHG16 expression on clinicopathological features and prognosis in patients with different kinds of human cancers. METHODS: We performed a systematic search in electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Web of Science, to investigate the potential association between SNHG16 expression and prognostic significance and clinical features in cancer patients. Odds ratios (ORs) or hazards ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were pooled to estimate the prognosis value of SNHG16 by StataSE 15.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 16 eligible studies with 1299 patients were enrolled in our meta-analysis. The results revealed that increased expression level of SNHG16 was significantly associated with larger tumor size (OR: 3.357; 95% CI: 2.173-5.185; P < 0.001), advanced TNM stage (OR: 2.930; 95% CI: 1.522-5.640; P = 0.001) and poor histological grade (OR: 3.943; 95% CI: 1.955-7.952; P < 0.001), but not correlated with smoking status (P = 0.489), sex (P = 0.932), distant metastasis (P = 0.052), or lymph node metastasis (P = 0.155). Moreover, the pooled HR showed that elevated expression SNHG16 was associated with a significantly poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.866, 95% CI: 1.571-2.216, P < 0.001). For the set of cancer types, high expression of SNHG16 was significantly associated with shorter OS in patients with cancers of the urinary system (HR: 2.523, 95% CI:1.540-4.133; P <0.001), digestive system (HR: 2.406, 95% CI:1.556-3.721; P <0.001), and other cancers (including glioma and non-small cell lung cancer) (HR: 1.786, 95% CI:1.406-2.267; P <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: LncRNA SNHG16 overexpression might serve as an unfavorable prognostic factor, which provides a basis for medical workers to evaluate the prognosis of patients and to help the decision-making process.
Subject(s)
Biomarkers, Tumor/metabolism , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Neoplasms/mortality , RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism , Disease-Free Survival , Humans , Kaplan-Meier Estimate , Neoplasm Staging , Neoplasms/genetics , Neoplasms/pathology , Prognosis , Progression-Free Survival , Tumor Burden/geneticsABSTRACT
RATIONALE: Accurate measurement of trace compounds in blood samples is important in clinical diagnosis and life science. Ambient ionization mass spectrometry, however, suffers from the matrix effect when dealing with complex samples such as blood. Therefore, it is important to reduce the matrix effects in blood samples. METHODS: A low-cost and disposable Teflon tube was used as a platform to precipitate the protein in blood. The analytes are extracted into organic solvent, and the precipitated protein can be adsorbed by the chromatography paper inserted. Therefore, the Teflon tube after precipitation can be directly subjected to paper spray ionization mass spectrometry, achieving one-step analysis of blood. RESULTS: High sensitivity and satisfactory stability were achieved for pharmaceuticals, acids, and endogenic metabolites in blood. The absolute signal intensities of characteristic product ions of the tested analytes were 8-20 times higher after protein precipitation than those obtained using paper spray. Detection limits and quantitative performance were evaluated for three drugs: carbamazepine, metformin, and tioconazole. In addition, the limits of detection and quantitation were improved 9-14- and 8-12-fold, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Protein precipitation coupled to paper spray with a tube and then to mass spectrometry was successfully achieved and applied in the one-step analysis of trace compounds in blood samples. The experimental results showed that this method was sensitive, stable, convenient, and economic for the direct analysis of blood.
Subject(s)
Blood Chemical Analysis/methods , Blood Proteins/isolation & purification , Chemical Precipitation , Pharmaceutical Preparations/blood , Spermidine/blood , Humans , Limit of Detection , Mass Spectrometry/methods , PaperABSTRACT
Rapid analysis of metabolites in biofluids is of great importance for disease diagnosis or new-born disease screening. Herein, we introduce an agarose hydrogel conditioning method to enhance the performance of paper spray ionization mass spectrometry. With facile and fast hydrogel conditioning, the signal intensity of therapeutic drugs spiked in urine was 5 to 15 fold higher than that in direct paper spray ionization mass spectrometry analysis. Consequently, the sensitivity of metabolites in urine was improved via hydrogel conditioning, resulting in 9 to 15 fold decrease in the possibility of detection (POD) levels. These results show that agarose hydrogel conditioning coupled with paper spray ionization mass spectrometry could serve as a facile ionization method for ambient mass spectrometry, which might be useful in fast screening of metabolites and therapeutic drugs in raw biofluids.
Subject(s)
Metabolome , Paper , Sepharose/chemistry , Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization/methods , Urine/chemistry , Animals , Equipment Design , Humans , Hydrogels/chemistry , Metabolomics/instrumentation , Metabolomics/methods , Mice , Pharmaceutical Preparations/metabolism , Pharmaceutical Preparations/urine , Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization/instrumentationABSTRACT
The use of single-cell assays has emerged as a cutting-edge technique during the past decade. Although single-cell mass spectrometry (MS) has recently achieved remarkable results, deep biological insights have not yet been obtained, probably because of various technical issues, including the unavoidable use of matrices, the inability to maintain cell viability, low throughput because of sample pretreatment, and the lack of recordings of cell physiological activities from the same cell. In this study, we describe a patch clamp/MS-based platform that enables the sensitive, rapid, and in situ chemical profiling of single living neurons. This approach integrates modified patch clamp technique and modified MS measurements to directly collect and detect nanoliter-scale samples from the cytoplasm of single neurons in mice brain slices. Abundant possible cytoplasmic constituents were detected in a single neuron at a relatively fast rate, and over 50 metabolites were identified in this study. The advantages of direct, rapid, and in situ sampling and analysis enabled us to measure the biological activities of the cytoplasmic constituents in a single neuron, including comparing neuron types by cytoplasmic chemical constituents; observing changes in constituent concentrations as the physiological conditions, such as age, vary; and identifying the metabolic pathways of small molecules.
Subject(s)
Cytoplasm/metabolism , Mass Spectrometry/methods , Neurons/chemistry , Single-Cell Analysis/methods , Animals , Metabolic Networks and Pathways/genetics , Patch-Clamp Techniques/methodsABSTRACT
Detecting and classifying the modulation type of the intercepted noisy LPI (low probability of intercept) radar signals in real-time is a necessary survival technique in the electronic intelligence systems. Most radar signals have been designed to have LPI properties; therefore, the LPI radar waveform recognition technique (LWRT) has recently gained increasing attention. In this paper, we propose a multiple feature images joint decision (MFIJD) model with two different feature extraction structures that fully extract the pixel feature to obtain the pre-classification results of each feature image for the non-stationary characteristics of most LPI radar signals. The core technology of this model is combining the short-time autocorrelation feature image, double short-time autocorrelation feature image and the original signal time-frequency image (TFI) simultaneously input into the hybrid model classifier, which is suitable for non-stationary signals, and it has higher universality. We demonstrate the performance of MFIJD by simulating 11 types of the signals defined in this paper and generating training sets and test sets. The comparison with the literature shows that the proposed methods not only has a high universality for LPI radar signals, but also better adapts to LPI radar waveform recognition at low SNR (signal to noise ratio) environment. The overall recognition rate of the method reaches 87.7% when the SNR is -6 dB.