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Journal of Chromatography. A Jun 2022In recent years, important efforts have been put into miniaturization, coming on the scene formats such as chips, 3D-printed objects and paper-based devices. These... (Review)
Review
In recent years, important efforts have been put into miniaturization, coming on the scene formats such as chips, 3D-printed objects and paper-based devices. These systems have been applied to biological and chemical processes taking profit of their advantages such as waste reduction, low cost, portability, etc. Despite their benefits, there is a need to continue developing easier-to-use devices with enhanced performance addressed to face the current analytical challenges. In this sense, reticular porous materials such as metal- (MOFs) and covalent- (COFs) organic frameworks with unique features including tailorable porous architectures and tunable chemistry have attracted a lot of attention in various fields. Nevertheless, the combination of these materials with miniaturized and emerging formats has been scarcely investigated. This review is intended to bridge this gap and highlight the recent contributions of these materials in these analytical formats. Thus, this work aims to provide a comprehensive review of the field, highlighting incorporation strategies into the functional supports available to date, and the applications of the resulting systems in both off-site laboratory studies (mostly dedicated to (micro)extraction purposes) and on-site analysis. Finally, a discussion of challenges and future directions in this field is also given.
Topics: Chemistry, Analytic; Metal-Organic Frameworks; Metals; Porosity
PubMed: 35526300
DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2022.463092 -
The Journal of Nutrition Aug 2018The Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD) is sponsored by the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It provides a...
The Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD) is sponsored by the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It provides a searchable, free database of the contents of ∼65,000 supplement labels. A companion database of analytically verified product labels [the Dietary Supplement Ingredient Database (DSID)] was created by ODS, NLM, and the USDA. There are considerable challenges to populating both databases, but the DSID faces unique analytic chemistry challenges. This article describes the challenges to creating analytically verified marketplace surveys of dietary supplement (DS) product content claims for inclusion in public databases. Nutritionists and public health scientists require information on actual exposures to DS constituents because labeled content may not match labeled product content. Analytic verification of composition of DSs provides a link to actual exposure. A public database of analytically derived DS content was developed to provide more accurate estimates of dietary intake in population-based epidemiologic studies. The DSID has conducted surveys of several types of vitamin- and mineral-containing DSs. Results showing label content claims as analytically derived values are available in the current DSID. A recent pilot project explored the feasibility of adding botanical DS products to the DSID. Candidates for future botanical DSID studies will be based on sales volume, potential public health impacts, and the availability of validated analytic methods and reference materials. Databases like DSID and the DSLD are essential for researchers and clinicians to evaluate dietary ingredient intakes in population-based epidemiologic studies. Together, these databases provide a picture of the DS marketplace. The DSID provides an analytic survey of marketed DSs. However, selection of future botanical supplements for DSID evaluation involves analytic challenges. Even when appropriate resources are available, method selection and data evaluation are resource- and time-consuming.
Topics: Databases, Factual; Dietary Supplements; Food Labeling; Humans; Laboratories; Minerals; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); National Library of Medicine (U.S.); Public Health; Reference Standards; Tea; United States; United States Department of Agriculture; Vitamins
PubMed: 31505676
DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxy134 -
Current Opinion in Structural Biology Aug 2014In this review we discuss the current advances relating to structure determination from protein microcrystals with special emphasis on the newly developed method called... (Review)
Review
In this review we discuss the current advances relating to structure determination from protein microcrystals with special emphasis on the newly developed method called MicroED. This method uses a transmission electron cryo-microscope to collect electron diffraction data from extremely small 3-dimensional (3D) crystals. MicroED has been used to solve the 3D structure of the model protein lysozyme to 2.9Å resolution. As the method further matures, MicroED promises to offer a unique and widely applicable approach to protein crystallography using nanocrystals.
Topics: Analytic Sample Preparation Methods; Cryoelectron Microscopy; Crystallography, X-Ray; Proteins
PubMed: 24709395
DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2014.03.004 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2013Phenolic compounds are well-known phytochemicals found in all plants. They consist of simple phenols, benzoic and cinnamic acid, coumarins, tannins, lignins, lignans and... (Review)
Review
Phenolic compounds are well-known phytochemicals found in all plants. They consist of simple phenols, benzoic and cinnamic acid, coumarins, tannins, lignins, lignans and flavonoids. Substantial developments in research focused on the extraction, identification and quantification of phenolic compounds as medicinal and/or dietary molecules have occurred over the last 25 years. Organic solvent extraction is the main method used to extract phenolics. Chemical procedures are used to detect the presence of total phenolics, while spectrophotometric and chromatographic techniques are utilized to identify and quantify individual phenolic compounds. This review addresses the application of different methodologies utilized in the analysis of phenolic compounds in plant-based products, including recent technical developments in the quantification of phenolics.
Topics: Analytic Sample Preparation Methods; Chemistry Techniques, Analytical; Phenols; Plants
PubMed: 23429347
DOI: 10.3390/molecules18022328 -
International Journal of Pharmaceutics Feb 2020Interest in orodispersible films (ODF) is growing day-by-day, since this dosage form overcomes some therapeutic obstacles, such as impaired swallowing, and offers... (Review)
Review
Interest in orodispersible films (ODF) is growing day-by-day, since this dosage form overcomes some therapeutic obstacles, such as impaired swallowing, and offers several benefits, such as the possibility to adapt the dosing requirements for a subset of patients. As a consequence, technologies to produce ODF have risen attention for possible applications in the development of patient-centric formulations. This review critically discusses current trends in the technology platforms proposed to manufacture ODF, including the innovation and opportunities to produce very small batches in a pharmacy setting. Although the main Pharmacopoeias recommend testing customized dosage forms for quality assurance, pharmaceutical assays are a matter of debate due to the complexity and high cost of conventional methods. Alternatively, non-disruptive online analytic methods can be proposed to assay ODF properties, above all to assure the uniformity of drug content.
Topics: Administration, Oral; Animals; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; Dosage Forms; Drug Compounding; Drug Delivery Systems; Humans; Pharmaceutical Preparations
PubMed: 31857185
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2019.118963 -
PLoS Computational Biology Dec 2021There is a growing realization that multi-way chromatin contacts formed in chromosome structures are fundamental units of gene regulation. However, due to the paucity...
There is a growing realization that multi-way chromatin contacts formed in chromosome structures are fundamental units of gene regulation. However, due to the paucity and complexity of such contacts, it is challenging to detect and identify them using experiments. Based on an assumption that chromosome structures can be mapped onto a network of Gaussian polymer, here we derive analytic expressions for n-body contact probabilities (n > 2) among chromatin loci based on pairwise genomic contact frequencies available in Hi-C, and show that multi-way contact probability maps can in principle be extracted from Hi-C. The three-body (triplet) contact probabilities, calculated from our theory, are in good correlation with those from measurements including Tri-C, MC-4C and SPRITE. Maps of multi-way chromatin contacts calculated from our analytic expressions can not only complement experimental measurements, but also can offer better understanding of the related issues, such as cell-line dependent assemblies of multiple genes and enhancers to chromatin hubs, competition between long-range and short-range multi-way contacts, and condensates of multiple CTCF anchors.
Topics: Chromatin; Chromosome Mapping; DNA; Enhancer Elements, Genetic; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Genomics; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans
PubMed: 34871311
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009669 -
Analytical Chemistry Nov 2022A major obstacle for reusing and integrating existing data is finding the data that is most relevant in a given context. The primary metadata resource is the scientific...
A major obstacle for reusing and integrating existing data is finding the data that is most relevant in a given context. The primary metadata resource is the scientific literature describing the experiments that produced the data. To stimulate the development of natural language processing methods for extracting this information from articles, we have manually annotated 100 recent open access publications in Analytical Chemistry as semantic graphs. We focused on articles mentioning mass spectrometry in their experimental sections, as we are particularly interested in the topic, which is also within the domain of several ontologies and controlled vocabularies. The resulting gold standard dataset is publicly available and directly applicable to validating automated methods for retrieving this metadata from the literature. In the process, we also made a number of observations on the structure and description of experiments and open access publication in this journal.
Topics: Semantics; Natural Language Processing; Research Design; Chemistry, Analytic
PubMed: 36281827
DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.2c03565 -
IScience Mar 2021Solubility screening is an essential, routine process that is often labor intensive. Robotic platforms have been developed to automate some aspects of the manual labor...
Solubility screening is an essential, routine process that is often labor intensive. Robotic platforms have been developed to automate some aspects of the manual labor involved. However, many of the existing systems rely on traditional analytic techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography, which require pre-calibration for each compound and can be resource consuming. In addition, automation is not typically end-to-end, requiring user intervention to move vials, establish analytical methods for each compound and interpret the raw data. We developed a closed-loop, flexible robotic system with integrated solid and liquid dosing capabilities that relies on computer vision and iterative feedback to successfully measure caffeine solubility in multiple solvents. After initial researcher input (<2 min), the system ran autonomously, screening five different solvent systems (20-80 min each). The resulting solubility values matched those obtained using traditional manual techniques.
PubMed: 33718828
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102176 -
TheScientificWorldJournal Jul 2009Modern scientific endeavour is increasingly delivered within an interdisciplinary framework. Analytical environmental chemistry is a long-standing example of an...
Modern scientific endeavour is increasingly delivered within an interdisciplinary framework. Analytical environmental chemistry is a long-standing example of an interdisciplinary approach to scientific research where value is added by the close cooperation of different disciplines. This editorial piece discusses the rise of environmental analytical chemistry as an interdisciplinary activity and outlines the scope of the Analytical Chemistry and the Environmental Chemistry domains of TheScientificWorldJOURNAL (TSWJ), and the appropriateness of TSWJ's domain format in covering interdisciplinary research. All contributions of new data, methods, case studies, and instrumentation, or new interpretations and developments of existing data, case studies, methods, and instrumentation, relating to analytical and/or environmental chemistry, to the Analytical and Environmental Chemistry domains, are welcome and will be considered equally.
Topics: Chemistry, Analytic; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Pollutants; Environmental Pollution; Research; Research Design
PubMed: 19578710
DOI: 10.1100/tsw.2009.78 -
International Journal of Molecular... Sep 2020The root bark of has long been appreciated as an antiphlogistic, diuretic and expectorant drug in Chinese herbal medicine, albeit with barely known targets and... (Review)
Review
The root bark of has long been appreciated as an antiphlogistic, diuretic and expectorant drug in Chinese herbal medicine, albeit with barely known targets and mechanisms of action. In the 1970s, the development of analytic chemistry allowed for the discovery of morusin as one of 7 different isoprene flavonoid derivatives in the root bark of . However, the remarkable antioxidant capacity of morusin with the unexpected potential for health benefits over the other flavonoid derivatives has recently sparked scientific interest in the biochemical identification of target proteins and signaling pathways and further clinical relevance. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the understanding of the functional roles of morusin in multiple biological processes such as inflammation, apoptosis, metabolism and autophagy. We also highlight recent in vivo and in vitro evidence on the clinical potential of morusin treatment for multiple human pathologies including inflammatory diseases, neurological disorders, diabetes, cancer and the underlying mechanisms.
Topics: Antioxidants; Apoptosis; Autophagy; Butadienes; Flavonoids; Hemiterpenes; Humans; Inflammation; Morus; Plant Bark; Plant Extracts; Plant Roots; Signal Transduction; Stress, Physiological
PubMed: 32906784
DOI: 10.3390/ijms21186541