Cellular Lipid Extraction for Targeted Stable Isotope Dilution Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Analysis

The metabolism of fatty acids, such as arachidonic acid (AA) and linoleic acid (LA), results in the formation of oxidized bioactive lipids, including numerous stereoisomers^1,2. These metabolites can be formed from free or esterified fatty acids. Many of these oxidized metabolites have biological activity and have been implicated in various diseases including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, asthma, and cancer^3-7. Oxidized bioactive lipids can be formed enzymatically or by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Enzymes that metabolize fatty acids include cyclooxygenase (COX), lipoxygenase (LO), and cytochromes P450 (CYPs)^1,8. Enzymatic metabolism results in enantioselective formation whereas ROS oxidation results in the racemic formation of products.While this protocol focuses primarily on the analysis of AA- and some LA-derived bioactive metabolites; it could be easily applied to metabolites of other fatty acids. Bioactive lipids are extracted from cell lysate or media using liquid-liquid (l-l) extraction. At the beginning of the l-l extraction process, stable isotope internal standards are added to account for errors during sample preparation. Stable isotope dilution (SID) also accounts for any differences, such as ion suppression, that metabolites may experience during the mass spectrometry (MS) analysis⁹. After the extraction, derivatization with an electron capture (EC) reagent, pentafluorylbenzyl bromide (PFB) is employed to increase detection sensitivity^10,11. Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) is used to increase the selectivity of the MS analysis. Before MS analysis, lipids are separated using chiral normal phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HPLC conditions are optimized to separate the enantiomers and various stereoisomers of the monitored lipids¹². This specific LC-MS method monitors prostaglandins (PGs), isoprostanes (isoPs), hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs), hydroxyoctadecadienoic acids (HODEs), oxoeicosatetraenoic acids (oxoETEs) and oxooctadecadienoic acids (oxoODEs); however, the HPLC and MS parameters can be optimized to include any fatty acid metabolites¹³.Most of the currently available bioanalytical methods do not take into account the separate quantification of enantiomers. This is extremely important when trying to deduce whether or not the metabolites were formed enzymatically or by ROS. Additionally, the ratios of the enantiomers may provide evidence for a specific enzymatic pathway of formation. The use of SID allows for accurate quantification of metabolites and accounts for any sample loss during preparation as well as the differences experienced during ionization. Using the PFB electron capture reagent increases the sensitivity of detection by two orders of magnitude over conventional APCI methods. Overall, this method, SID-LC-EC-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization APCI-MRM/MS, is one of the most sensitive, selective, and accurate methods of quantification for bioactive lipids.     

生物质谱在细胞信号转导研究中的应用

近几年快速发展起来的生物质谱技术 ,依靠 (酶解后肽段 )精确质量数测定和随机肽序列标签分析 ,实现了对蛋白质高通量的鉴定 ,并被成功地用于蛋白质相互作用和蛋白质磷酸化等翻译后修饰研究。与传统的研究手段相比 ,上述技术能够在一次实验中对多信号通路中所有磷酸化的蛋白质分子及其磷酸化位点进行鉴定 ,已成为蛋白质组学最新发展中令人关注的一个热点。简要综述质谱技术应用于上述工作中的 3种策略     

脂筏--细胞信号转导发生的平台

在脂筏和胞膜窖中存在有多种参与细胞信号转导的跨膜蛋白质,在细胞内或／和细胞外信号的刺激下。脂筏能改变蛋白质的大小和组成,有助于特异的蛋白质与蛋白质之间的相互作用,从而导致了信号级联反应的激活。脂筏在细胞信号转导事件中的重要作用已越来越受到人们的关注。     

Zebrafish on a Chip: A Novel Platform for Real-Time Monitoring of Drug-Induced Developmental Toxicity

Pharmaceutical safety testing requires a cheap, fast and highly efficient platform for real-time evaluation of drug toxicity and secondary effects. In this study, we have developed a microfluidic system for phenotype-based evaluation of toxic and teratogenic effects of drugs using zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos and larvae as the model organism. The microfluidic chip is composed of two independent functional units, enabling the assessment of zebrafish embryos and larvae. Each unit consists of a fluidic concentration gradient generator and a row of seven culture chambers to accommodate zebrafish. To test the accuracy of this new chip platform, we examined the toxicity and teratogenicity of an anti-asthmatic agent-aminophylline (Apl) on 210 embryos and 210 larvae (10 individuals per chamber). The effect of Apl on zebrafish embryonic development was quantitatively assessed by recording a series of physiological indicators such as heart rate, survival rate, body length and hatch rate. Most importantly, a new index called clonic convulsion rate, combined with mortality was used to evaluate the toxicities of Apl on zebrafish larvae. We found that Apl can induce deformity and cardiovascular toxicity in both zebrafish embryos and larvae. This microdevice is a multiplexed testing apparatus that allows for the examination of indexes beyond toxicity and teratogenicity at the sub-organ and cellular levels and provides a potentially cost-effective and rapid pharmaceutical safety assessment tool.     

MATtrack: A MATLAB-Based Quantitative Image Analysis Platform for Investigating Real-Time Photo-Converted Fluorescent Signals in Live Cells

We introduce here MATtrack, an open source MATLAB-based computational platform developed to process multi-Tiff files produced by a photo-conversion time lapse protocol for live cell fluorescent microscopy. MATtrack automatically performs a series of steps required for image processing, including extraction and import of numerical values from Multi-Tiff files, red/green image classification using gating parameters, noise filtering, background extraction, contrast stretching and temporal smoothing. MATtrack also integrates a series of algorithms for quantitative image analysis enabling the construction of mean and standard deviation images, clustering and classification of subcellular regions and injection point approximation. In addition, MATtrack features a simple user interface, which enables monitoring of Fluorescent Signal Intensity in multiple Regions of Interest, over time. The latter encapsulates a region growing method to automatically delineate the contours of Regions of Interest selected by the user, and performs background and regional Average Fluorescence Tracking, and automatic plotting. Finally, MATtrack computes convenient visualization and exploration tools including a migration map, which provides an overview of the protein intracellular trajectories and accumulation areas. In conclusion, MATtrack is an open source MATLAB-based software package tailored to facilitate the analysis and visualization of large data files derived from real-time live cell fluorescent microscopy using photoconvertible proteins. It is flexible, user friendly, compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux, and a wide range of data acquisition software. MATtrack is freely available for download at eleceng.dit.ie/courtney/MATtrack.zip.     

Analytical Sensitivity Comparison between Singleplex Real-Time PCR and a Multiplex PCR Platform for Detecting Respiratory Viruses

Multiplex PCR methods are attractive to clinical laboratories wanting to broaden their detection of respiratory viral pathogens in clinical specimens. However, multiplexed assays must be well optimized to retain or improve upon the analytic sensitivity of their singleplex counterparts. In this experiment, the lower limit of detection (LOD) of singleplex real-time PCR assays targeting respiratory viruses is compared to an equivalent panel on a multiplex PCR platform, the GenMark eSensor RVP. LODs were measured for each singleplex real-time PCR assay and expressed as the lowest copy number detected 95–100% of the time, depending on the assay. The GenMark eSensor RVP LODs were obtained by converting the TCID₅₀/mL concentrations reported in the package insert to copies/μL using qPCR. Analytical sensitivity between the two methods varied from 1.2–1280.8 copies/μL (0.08–3.11 log differences) for all 12 assays compared. Assays targeting influenza A/H3N2, influenza A/H1N1pdm09, influenza B, and human parainfluenza 1 and 2 were most comparable (1.2–8.4 copies/μL, <1 log difference). Largest differences in LOD were demonstrated for assays targeting adenovirus group E, respiratory syncytial virus subtype A, and a generic assay for all influenza A viruses regardless of subtype (319.4–1280.8 copies/μL, 2.50–3.11 log difference). The multiplex PCR platform, the GenMark eSensor RVP, demonstrated improved analytical sensitivity for detecting influenza A/H3 viruses, influenza B virus, human parainfluenza virus 2, and human rhinovirus (1.6–94.8 copies/μL, 0.20–1.98 logs). Broader detection of influenza A/H3 viruses was demonstrated by the GenMark eSensor RVP. The relationship between TCID₅₀/mL concentrations and the corresponding copy number related to various ATCC cultures is also reported.     

Exometabolome analysis identifies pyruvate dehydrogenase as a target for the antibiotic triphenylbismuthdichloride in multiresistant bacterial pathogens

The desperate need for new therapeutics against notoriously antibiotic-resistant bacteria has led to a quest for novel antibacterial target structures and compounds. Moreover, defining targets and modes of action of new antimicrobial compounds remains a major challenge with standard technologies. Here we characterize the antibacterial properties of triphenylbismuthdichloride (TPBC), which has recently been successfully used against device-associated infections. We demonstrate that TPBC has potent antimicrobial activity against many bacterial pathogens. Using an exometabolome profiling approach, a unique TPBC-mediated change in the metabolites of Staphylococcus aureus was identified, indicating that TPBC blocks bacterial pyruvate catabolism. Enzymatic studies showed that TPBC is a highly efficient, uncompetitive inhibitor of the bacterial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Our study demonstrates that metabolomics approaches can offer new avenues for studying the modes of action of antimicrobial compounds, and it indicates that inhibition of the bacterial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex may represent a promising strategy for combating multidrug-resistant bacteria.     

Cell Surface Profiling Using High-Throughput Flow Cytometry: A Platform for Biomarker Discovery and Analysis of Cellular Heterogeneity

Cell surface proteins have a wide range of biological functions, and are often used as lineage-specific markers. Antibodies that recognize cell surface antigens are widely used as research tools, diagnostic markers, and even therapeutic agents. The ability to obtain broad cell surface protein profiles would thus be of great value in a wide range of fields. There are however currently few available methods for high-throughput analysis of large numbers of cell surface proteins. We describe here a high-throughput flow cytometry (HT-FC) platform for rapid analysis of 363 cell surface antigens. Here we demonstrate that HT-FC provides reproducible results, and use the platform to identify cell surface antigens that are influenced by common cell preparation methods. We show that multiple populations within complex samples such as primary tumors can be simultaneously analyzed by co-staining of cells with lineage-specific antibodies, allowing unprecedented depth of analysis of heterogeneous cell populations. Furthermore, standard informatics methods can be used to visualize, cluster and downsample HT-FC data to reveal novel signatures and biomarkers. We show that the cell surface profile provides sufficient molecular information to classify samples from different cancers and tissue types into biologically relevant clusters using unsupervised hierarchical clustering. Finally, we describe the identification of a candidate lineage marker and its subsequent validation. In summary, HT-FC combines the advantages of a high-throughput screen with a detection method that is sensitive, quantitative, highly reproducible, and allows in-depth analysis of heterogeneous samples. The use of commercially available antibodies means that high quality reagents are immediately available for follow-up studies. HT-FC has a wide range of applications, including biomarker discovery, molecular classification of cancers, or identification of novel lineage specific or stem cell markers.     

An Open-Source Mesh Generation Platform for Biophysical Modeling Using Realistic Cellular Geometries

Advances in imaging methods such as electron microscopy, tomography, and other modalities are enabling high-resolution reconstructions of cellular and organelle geometries. Such advances pave the way for using these geometries for biophysical and mathematical modeling once these data can be represented as a geometric mesh, which, when carefully conditioned, enables the discretization and solution of partial differential equations. In this work, we outline the steps for a naïve user to approach the Geometry-preserving Adaptive MeshER software version 2, a mesh generation code written in C++ designed to convert structural data sets to realistic geometric meshes while preserving the underlying shapes. We present two example cases: 1) mesh generation at the subcellular scale as informed by electron tomography and 2) meshing a protein with a structure from x-ray crystallography. We further demonstrate that the meshes generated by the Geometry-preserving Adaptive MeshER software are suitable for use with numerical methods. Together, this collection of libraries and tools simplifies the process of constructing realistic geometric meshes from structural biology data.     

Accurate Identification of Common Pathogenic Nocardia Species: Evaluation of a Multilocus Sequence Analysis Platform and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

Species identification of Nocardia is not straightforward due to rapidly evolving taxonomy, insufficient discriminatory power of conventional phenotypic methods and also of single gene locus analysis including 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Here we evaluated the ability of a 5-locus (16S rRNA, gyrB, secA1, hsp65 and rpoB) multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) approach as well as that of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in comparison with sequencing of the 5’-end 606 bp partial 16S rRNA gene to provide identification of 25 clinical isolates of Nocardia. The 5’-end 606 bp 16S rRNA gene sequencing successfully assigned 24 of 25 (96%) clinical isolates to species level, namely Nocardia cyriacigeorgica (n = 12, 48%), N. farcinica (n = 9, 36%), N. abscessus (n = 2, 8%) and N. otitidiscaviarum (n = 1, 4%). MLSA showed concordance with 16S rRNA gene sequencing results for the same 24 isolates. However, MLSA was able to identify the remaining isolate as N. wallacei, and clustered N. cyriacigeorgica into three subgroups. None of the clinical isolates were correctly identified to the species level by MALDI-TOF MS analysis using the manufacturer-provided database. A small “in-house” spectral database was established incorporating spectra of five clinical isolates representing the five species identified in this study. After complementation with the “in-house” database, of the remaining 20 isolates, 19 (95%) were correctly identified to species level (score ≥ 2.00) and one (an N. abscessus strain) to genus level (score ≥ 1.70 and < 2.00). In summary, MLSA showed superior discriminatory power compared with the 5’-end 606 bp partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing for species identification of Nocardia. MALDI-TOF MS can provide rapid and accurate identification but is reliant on a robust mass spectra database.     

Evaluation of LightCycler as a Platform for Nucleic Acid Sequence-Based Amplification (NASBA) in Real-Time Detection of Enteroviruses

The nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) assay has been demonstrated to be more sensitive for detection of enteroviruses (EV) than RT-PCR. Many laboratories, however, do not have a dedicated instrument for the NASBA assay. This study aimed to evaluate the use of the Roche LightCycler as a platform for performing the NASBA assay for detection of EV. A diverse subgenera of EV were used to assess the specificity of the NASBA assay, including coxsackie, echovirus, poliovirus, and other enteroviruses together with related and unrelated viruses, including rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, herpes simplex virus, adenovirus, influenza virus A, and cytomegalovirus. All species of EV tested were successfully detected using NASBA and no cross reactivity with other viruses was observed. Using serial dilutions of EV to assess sensitivity, the NASBA assay was compared to an in-house EV RT-PCR assay. The NASBA assay demonstrated a higher level of sensitivity. Fifty-one clinical samples positive for EV by viral culture were also evaluated. All NASBA results obtained were concordant with viral culture results. This study confirmed that the NASBA assay for the detection of EV could be readily performed on the LightCycler and easily incorporated into the workflow of a diagnostic laboratory equipped with a LightCycler, thereby eliminating the need for additional instrumentation.     

肝癌患者体液免疫和细胞免疫的变化情况

目的:探讨肝癌患者体液免疫和细胞免疫功能状况。方法:选取2012年1月20日至2015年3月25日在西宁市第一人民医院就诊的126例肝癌患者和87名健康者作为研究对象,采用免疫透射比浊法测定血清IgA、IgG水平,采用流式细胞术检测外周血T淋巴细胞亚群CD3~+、CD4~+、CD8~+和CD4~+/CD8~+水平。结果:与健康对照组相比,肝癌组患者血清中IgA和IgG水平显著升高(P0.05),外周血中T淋巴细胞亚群CD3~+、CD4~+和CD4~+/CD8~+显著降低(P0.05),CD8~+显著升高(P0.05)。结论:肝癌患者体液免疫功能增强,细胞免疫功能降低,外周血T细胞亚群和血清免疫球蛋白的检测对了解肝癌患者的病情、预后以及免疫治疗具有一定的临床指导意义。