Chemically versus thermally processed brown shrimp shells or Chinese mitten crab as a source of chitin, nutrients or salts and as microbial stimulant in soilless strawberry cultivation.

Brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) shells and Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) were chemically demineralized and deproteinized (denoted as M1 to M4 for the shrimp shells and M5 to M7 for the Chinese mitten crab), and shrimp shells were torrefied at 200 to 300 °C (denoted as R200, R255, R300), and were compared with a commercially available chitin source (denoted as reference chitin). Based on their chemical characteristics, a selection of chitin sources was tested for their N mineralization capacity. The N release was high for the chemically treated shrimp shells and Chinese mitten crab, but not for the torrefied shrimp shells with or without acid treatment, indicating that treatment at 200 °C or higher resulted in low N availability.

A label-free potentiometric sensor principle for the detection of antibody-antigen interactions.

We report here on a new potentiometric biosensing principle for the detection of antibody-antigen interactions at the sensing membrane surface without the need to add a label or a reporter ion to the sample solution. This is accomplished by establishing a steady-state outward flux of a marker ion from the membrane into the contacting solution. The immunobinding event at the sensing surface retards the marker ion, which results in its accumulation at the membrane surface and hence in a potential response.

Online monitoring of dissolution tests using dedicated potentiometric sensors in biorelevant media.

The performance of the Ion-Selective Electrode (ISE) for in vitro dissolution testing using biorelevant media was evaluated in this study. In vitro dissolution was carried out using USP apparatus 2 (paddle method) with classical and with updated biorelevant media to simulate the pre- and postprandial states. The ISE was used as an analytical stand-alone system and in combination with a single-point HPLC-UV measurement.

Leaving out control groups: an internal contrast analysis of gene expression profiles in atrial fibrillation patients--a systems biology approach to clinical categorization.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a frequent chronic dysrythmia with an incidence that increases with age (>40). Because of its medical and socio-economic impacts it is expected to become an increasing burden on most health care systems. AF is a multi-factorial disease for which the identification of subtypes is warranted.

In situ dissolution testing using potentiometric sensors.

Potentiometric sensors can be used to determine the amount of API dissolved in the dissolution medium in function of time by measuring directly in the dissolution vessel of a Paddle (USP type 2) and Basket (USP type 1) apparatus. The prototype potentiometric sensor instrumentation showed very promising results for a selection of APIs with different physico-chemical properties. The applicability, benefits and limitations of the prototype were explored.

Historical processes constrain patterns in global diatom diversity.

There is a long-standing belief that microbial organisms have unlimited dispersal capabilities, are therefore ubiquitous, and show weak or absent latitudinal diversity gradients. In contrast, using a global freshwater diatom data set, we show that latitudinal gradients in local and regional genus richness are present and highly asymmetric between both hemispheres. Patterns in regional richness are explained by the degree of isolation of lake districts, while the number of locally coexisting diatom genera is highly constrained by the size of the regional diatom pool, habitat availability, and the connectivity between habitats within lake districts.

Biomarker discovery with SELDI-TOF MS in human urine associated with early renal injury: evaluation with computational analytical tools.

Background: Urine proteomics is one of the key emerging technologies to discover new biomarkers for renal disease, which may be used in the early diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients. In the present study, we validated surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) for biomarker discovery in patients with mild ischaemic kidney injury.

Methods: We used first-morning mid-stream urine samples from healthy volunteers, and from intensive care unit patients we collected urine 12-24 h after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

Development of in situ ion selective sensors for dissolution.

The dissolution of formulations of the drugs dapoxetine, paliperidone, cinnarizine, tetrazepam, mebeverine, loperamide, galantamine and ibuprofen was studied by an in-line potentiometric measurement system. The transpose of a Nikolskii-Eisenman type function performed the conversion of potential to percentage of dissolution. A novel gradient membrane electrode was developed especially for dissolution, varying continuously in composition from an ionically conducting rubber phase to an electronically conducting solid state PVC/graphite composite.

Augmentation of near infrared diffuse reflectance and transmittance spectral data for the development of robust PLSBC models for classifying double blind clinical trial tablets.

The water content of clinical trial tablets can be different between and within different tablet batches, depending on the relative humidity conditions during their production, packaging, storage and analysis. These water variations lead to important spectral variations in the near infrared spectral region which can lead to a wrong identification if the classification model was based on unrepresentative data towards the water content. As model development for clinical trial studies needs to be extremely fast - within one working day - with generally only one batch available, the principle of data augmentation has to be applied to render more robust classification models.

Coated wire potentiometric detection for capillary electrophoresis studied using organic amines, drugs, and biogenic amines.

Capillary electrophoresis was coupled successfully and reliably to potentiometric sensors, which are based on an ionically conductive rubber phase coating, applied on a 250 microm diameter metal substrate. The membrane components included potassium tetrakis(p-chlorophenyl)borate (TCPB), bis(2-ethylhexyl)sebacate (DOS), and high molecular mass poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Potentiometry reveals a very sensitive CE detection mode, with sub-micromolar detection limits for amines and the randomly chosen drugs quinine, clozapine, cocaine, heroine, noscapine, papaverine, and ritodrine.

A new approach in the prediction of the dissolution behavior of suspended particles by means of their particle size distribution.

Though various attempts have been made in literature to model the particle size distribution of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in function of the required release profile of the pharmaceutical product, so far one has not succeeded to develop a universal approach in the correlation of particle size distribution and in vitro dissolution data. In this publication, a new approach is presented on the use of particle size distribution data in the prediction of the in vitro dissolution profile of a suspension formulation. For this purpose, various theoretical experiments were done simply on paper and based on the Noyes-Whitney [A.

Laser diffraction and image analysis as a supportive analytical tool in the pharmaceutical development of immediate release direct compression formulations.

Immediate release direct compression tablet formulations require a strict control of the particle characteristics (i.e. particle size (distribution) and shape) of both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the excipients.

Visual pigment spectra of the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, derived from in vivo epi-illumination microspectrophotometry.

The visual pigments in the compound eye of the comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album, were investigated in a specially designed epi-illumination microspectrophotometer. Absorption changes due to photochemical conversions of the visual pigments, or due to light-independent visual pigment decay and regeneration, were studied by measuring the eye shine, i.e.

Analyzing the reflections from single ommatidia in the butterfly compound eye with Voronoi diagrams.

This paper presents a robust method for the automated segmentation and quantitative measurement of reflections from single ommatidia in the butterfly compound eye. Digital pictures of the butterfly eye shine recorded with a digital camera are processed to yield binary images from which single facet centers can be extracted using a morphological image analysis procedure. The location of the facet centers is corrected by fitting in-line facet centers to a second-order polynomial.

Opsin cDNA sequences of a UV and green rhodopsin of the satyrine butterfly Bicyclus anynana.

The cDNAs of an ultraviolet (UV) and long-wavelength (LW) (green) absorbing rhodopsin of the bush brown Bicyclus anynana were partially identified. The UV sequence, encoding 377 amino acids, is 76-79% identical to the UV sequences of the papilionids Papilio glaucus and Papilio xuthus and the moth Manduca sexta. A dendrogram derived from aligning the amino acid sequences reveals an equidistant position of Bicyclus between Papilio and Manduca.

Ommatidial heterogeneity in the compound eye of the male small white butterfly, Pieris rapae crucivora.

The ommatidia in the ventral two-thirds of the compound eye of male Pieris rapae crucivora are not uniform. Each ommatidium contains nine photoreceptor cells. Four cells (R1-4) form the distal two-thirds of the rhabdom, four cells (R5-8) approximately occupy the proximal one-third of the rhabdom, and the ninth cell (R9) takes up a minor basal part of the rhabdom.

Analysis of melphalan adducts of 2'-deoxynucleotides in calf thymus DNA hydrolysates by capillary high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

Melphalan is a bifunctional alkylating agent that covalently binds with intracellular nucleophilic sites. A methodology using electrospray mass spectrometry was developed to detect and identify DNA adducts. Alkylation sites within a particular nucleotide were examined using electrospray tandem mass spectrometry hyphenated to capillary liquid chromatography in combination with a column switching system.

Differentiation between isomeric phenylglycidyl ether adducts of 2'-deoxyguanosine and 2'-deoxyguanosine-5'-monophosphate using liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

The reaction between phenylglycidyl ether and 2'-deoxyguanosine or 2'-deoxyguanosine-5'-monophosphate yields a variety of different nucleoside and nucleotide adducts. The corresponding mixtures were analyzed by liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry and the product ion spectra of the different isomers are discussed using the correct cone voltage and collision energy. The latter were selected by looking at the energy-resolved spectra.

Development of a nanoscale liquid chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry methodology for the detection and identification of DNA adducts.

In this work, the coupling of liquid nanochromatography to NanoFlow electrospray mass spectrometry was evaluated for the detection of DNA adducts. The NanoFlow ES LC/MS system was compared with the capillary and conventional ES LC/MS system by analyzing an in vitro reaction mixture resulting from the interaction of 2'-deoxyguanosine 5'-monophosphate with bisphenol A diglycidyl ether and by injecting 2'-deoxyadenosine. By using NanoFlow ES LC/MS, the mass sensitivity could be improved by a factor of 3300.

Characterization of unstable intermediates and oxidized products formed during cyanogen bromide cleavage of peptides and proteins by electrospray mass spectrometry.

Products formed during cyanogen bromide (CNBr) digestion of alpha-endorphin, beta-endorphin, and horse heart myoglobin are examined using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray mass spectrometry. It is demonstrated that unstable intermediate reaction products may be formed, as well as oxidized products when the CNBr reaction is performed in 0.1% TFA in water/acetonitrile (6:4 v/v) and that, under other conditions commonly employed for the CNBr cleavage reaction, unstable intermediate products are also generated.

Phenylglycidyl ether adducts of 2'-deoxycytidine and 2'-deoxyadenosine: Stability in solution and structure analysis by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

The adducts of phenylglycidyl ether with 2'-deoxyadenosine (dAdo) and 2'-deoxycytidine (dCyd) exhibit structural modifications. The N-1 adduct of dAdo underwent rearrangement to the N-6 adduct; the N-3 adduct of dCyd was deaminated to the corresponding 2'-deoxyuridine adduct. These structural modifications were studied by using liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry, and kinetic data for both reactions are presented.

Transfection of thrombospondin 1 complementary DNA into a human breast carcinoma cell line reduces primary tumor growth, metastatic potential, and angiogenesis.

Previous studies demonstrated that metastatic MDA-MB-435 breast carcinoma cells synthesized and secreted less of the extracellular matrix protein thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) than nonmetastatic breast carcinoma cell lines, a trend also observed for melanoma and lung carcinoma cell lines. To directly examine the effect of tumor cell TSP1 expression on tumor growth and metastasis. MDA-MB-435 cells were transfected with full length THBS-1 cDNA linked to a constitutive cytomegalovirus promoter, or with the cytomegalovirus vector alone.

Transfection of human nm23-H1 into the human MDA-MB-435 breast carcinoma cell line: effects on tumor metastatic potential, colonization and enzymatic activity.

We report the phenotypic effects of transfection of human nm23-H1 cDNA into the human MDA-MB-435 breast carcinoma cell line. Upon mammary fat pad or subcutaneous injection into nude mice, both the nm23-H1 and control transfected lines produced primary tumors; however, the nm23-H1-transfected lines produced metastases in significantly fewer mice than did control transfected lines. Reductions in tumor metastatic potential in vivo were accompanied by decreased colonization in soft agar and an altered colonization response to transforming growth factor beta in vitro.