Beatrice Campanella

Determination of thiomersal by flow injection coupled with microwave-assisted photochemical online oxidative decomposition of organic mercury and cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy

We developed a flow injection (FI) method for the determination of thiomersal (sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate, C9H9HgNaO2S) based on the UV/microwave (MW) photochemical, online oxidation of organic mercury, followed by cold vapor generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVG-AFS) detection. Thiomersal was quantitatively converted in the MW/UV process to Hg(II), with a yield of 97±3%. This reaction was followed by the reduction of Hg(II) to Hg(0) performed in a knotted reaction coil with NaBH4 solution, and AFS detection in an Ar/H2 miniaturized flame. The method was linear in the 0.01-2 μg mL(-1) range, with a LOD of 0.003 μg mL(-1). This method has been applied to the determination of thiomersal in ophthalmic solutions, with recoveries ranging between 97% and 101%. We found a mercury concentration in commercial ophthalmic solutions ranging between 7.5 and 59.0 μg mL(-1).

Impact of Protein Concentration on the Determination of Thiolic Groups of Ovalbumin: A Size Exclusion Chromatography−Chemical Vapor Generation−Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry Study via Mercury Labeling

We optimized a hyphenated system based on size exclusion chromatography coupled to a microwave/UV mercury oxidation system and an atomic fluorescence detector (SEC-CVG-AFS) for the online oxidation of free and protein-complexed p-hydroxymercuribenzoic acid (pHMB) without the employment of chemical oxidizing agents. This system has been applied to the study of labeling of thiolic groups of native ovalbumin (OVA) as a function of protein concentration. We found that the protein concentration strongly affects the species distribution of OVA, the number of thiolic groups titrated in each species, and thus, the accuracy in the determination of the total number of thiolic groups. The amount of titrated sulfhydryl groups in the protein concentration range investigated (5-100 μmol L(-1)) varied from 2.40 ± 0.01 to 1.85 ± 0.05 for the monomeric form of OVA and from 4.63 ± 0.01 to 5.63 ± 0.05 for the total OVA, which represents more than four theoretical number of reduced Cys. This information is important from the analytical point of view because it suggests that, unless to operate with diluted concentration of protein, the number of titrated thiolic groups results from both the aspecific interaction of the probe with aggregates species and to the specific bond of the probe with the accessible -SH groups.

Thallium release from acid mine drainages: Speciation in river and tap water from Valdicastello mining district (northwest Tuscany)

In this work we present an advantageous method for the simultaneous separation and detection of Tl(I) and Tl(III) species through ion chromatography coupled with on-line inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry. Chromatographic separation between Tl(III) and Tl(I) was achieved in less than two minutes. The method was validated by recovery experiments on real samples, and by comparing the sum of the concentrations of individual Tl species with total thallium values obtained from continuous flow ICP-MS. The experimental procedure offers an accurate, sensitive and interference-free method for Tl speciation at trace levels in environmental samples. This allowed us to investigate the Tl speciation in acid mine drainages (AMD), surface waters and springs in a mining catchment in Valdicastello Carducci (Tuscany, Italy), where severe Tl contamination ad been evidenced previously. This study shows for the first time that Tl(III), in addition to Tl(I), is present in considerable amounts in water samples affected by acid mining outflow, raising the question of the origin of this thermodynamically unstable species.

Loading of halloysite nanotubes with BSA, α-Lac and β-Lg: A Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic and thermogravimetric study

Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) are considered as ideal materials for biotechnological and medical applications. An important feature of halloysite is that it has a different surface chemistry on the inner and outer sides of the tubes. This property means that negatively-charged molecules can be selectively loaded inside the halloysite nanoscale its lumen. Loaded HNTs can be used for the controlled or sustained release of proteins, drugs, bioactive molecules and other agents. We studied the interaction between HNTs and bovine serum albumin, α lactalbumin and β -lactoglobulin loaded into HTNs using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetry. These techniques enabled us to study the protein conformation and thermal stability, respectively, and to estimate the amount of protein loaded into the HNTs. TEM images confirmed the loading of proteins into HTNs.

Conformational analysis of bovine serum albumin adsorbed on halloysite nanotubes and kaolinite: a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study

Clay minerals are widely used in pharmaceutical formulations, therefore studying how they interaction with proteins is important because they can alter their biological functions. The interactions of proteins with nanostructured clays and, in general, with nanomaterials should also be studied because nanoparticles are known to interfere with protein amyloid formation, which is implicated in severe neurodegenerative diseases. Kaolinite and halloysite belong to the kaolinite group of minerals with the nominal formula Al2Si2O5(OH)4 per half unit cell, however they have important structural layer stacking differences. We studied the surface interactions between clays and bovine serum albumin (BSA) by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy in order to understand the role of clay morphology on protein conformation. We show that the conformational changes of BSA depend on protein concentration and its initial structure, clay morphology and the clay/protein ratio. The surface curvature radius seems to play a key role in the final conformation. Both the curved nanoscale surface of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and the flat morphology of kaolinite (Kao) interfere profoundly on the α/β transitions of BSA. BSA conformation also determines the percentage of protein adsorbed on the clay surface.

Microwave Photochemical Reactor for the Online Oxidative Decomposition of p-Hydroxymercurybenzoate (pHMB)-Tagged Proteins and Their Determination by Cold Vapor Generation-Atomic Fluorescence Detection

A novel method is presented for the characterization and determination of thiolic proteins. After the labeling with p-hydroxymercurybenzoate, the pHMB-labeled proteins underwent on-line oxidation with a novel microwave (MW)/UV photochemical reactor, followed by cold vapor generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVG-AFS) detection. The MW/UV process led to the conversion of pHMB to Hg(II) with a yield of 89.0 ± 0.5% without using chemical oxidizing reagents and avoiding the use of toxic carcinogenic compounds. Hg(II) was reduced to Hg(0) in a knotted reaction coil with NaBH4 solution, stripped from the solution by an argon flow and detected. The chromatographic method for labeled thiolic peptides was linear in the 0.2-100 μmol L(-1) range, with a LOD as mercury of 57 nmol L(-1). This system has proven to be a useful interface for liquid chromatography coupled with CVG-AFS in the determination and characterization of thiolic proteins. This method has been applied to the determination of thiolic peptides after tryptic digestion of serum albumins from different species (human, bovine, rat, horse, and sheep).

Direct, simple derivatization of disulfide bonds in proteins with organic mercury in alkaline medium without any chemical pre-reducing agents

In this work we have studied the derivatization of protein disulfide bonds with p-Hydroxymercurybenzoate (pHMB) in strong alkaline medium without any preliminary reduction. The reaction has been followed by the determination of the protein-pHMB complex using size exclusion chromatography coupled to a microwave/UV mercury oxidation system for the on-line oxidation of free and protein-complexed pHMB and atomic fluorescence spectrometry (SEC-CVG-AFS) detection. The reaction has been optimized by an experimental design using lysozyme as a model protein and applied to several thiolic proteins. The proposed method reports, for the first time, that it is possible to label 75-100% cysteines of proteins and, thus, to determine thiolic proteins without the need of any reducing step to obtain reduced SH groups before mercury labelling. We obtained a detection limit of 100 nmol L(-1) based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 for unbound and complexed pHMB, corresponding to a detection limit of proteins ranged between 3 and 360 nmol L(-1), depending on the number of cysteines in the protein sequence.

Influence of environmental and anthropogenic parameters on thallium oxidation state in natural waters

The abandoned mining area of Valdicastello Carducci (Tuscany, Italy) is characterized by the massive presence of thallium in the acid mine drainages and in the valley stream crossing the region. We previously found that Tl(III), generally considered the less stable oxidation state of thallium, is present both in the stream and in tap water distributed in the area, whereas acid mine drainages only contain Tl(I). These findings posed some concern related to the reactivity and dispersion of this toxic element in the environment. Since the valence state of thallium determines its toxicity, distribution and mobility, the study of thallium redox speciation appears crucial to understand its environmental behaviour. In this work, water samples collected from the mine drainages and the contaminated stream were adopted as model to study the distribution of aqueous Tl(I)/Tl(III) as a function of light exposure and solution properties and composition. The influence of three light sources and organic acids was evaluated. Thallium speciation was also assessed in tap water after treatment with common oxidizing agents, and in the rust crust collected from the public waterworks.

Ovalbumin labeling with p-hydroxymercurybenzoate: The effect of different denaturing agents and the kinetics of reaction.

The aim of our study was to investigate how denaturing agents commonly used in protein analysis influence the labeling between a reactive molecule and proteins. For this reason, we investigated the labeling of ovalbumin (OVA) as a globular model protein with p-hydroxymercurybenzoate (pHMB) in its native state (phosphate buffer solution) and in different denaturing conditions (8 molL(-1) urea, 3 molL(-1) guanidinium thiocyanate, 6 molL(-1) guanidinium chloride, 0.2% sodium dodecyl sulfate, and 20% methanol). In addition to chemical denaturation, thermal denaturation was also tested. The protein was pre-column simultaneously denatured and derivatized, and the pHMB-labeled denatured OVA complexes were analyzed by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled online with chemical vapor generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVG-AFS). The number of -SH groups titrated greatly depends on the protein structure in solution. Indeed, we found that, depending on the adopted denaturing conditions, OVA gave different aggregate species that influence the complexation process. The results were compared with those obtained by a common alternative procedure for the titration of -SH groups that employs monobromobimane (mBBr) as tagging molecule and molecular fluorescence spectroscopy as detection technique. We also investigated the labeling kinetics for denatured OVA and pHMB, finding that the 4 thiolic groups of OVA have a very different reactivity toward mercury labeling, in agreement with previous studies.

Determination of total dissolved nitrogen in seawater by isotope dilution gas chromatography mass spectrometry following digestion with persulfate and derivatization with aqueous triethyloxonium

In this study, we propose a novel approach for the determination of total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) in seawater combining high-precision isotope dilution GC-MS with persulfate digestion. A 2 mL sample aliquot was digested with an alkaline solution of persulfate to convert nitrogen containing compounds to nitrate. Digested samples were spiked with 15NO3- internal standard and treated with aqueous triethyloxonium to convert the analyte into volatile EtONO2. This derivative was readily separated from the matrix under gaseous form and could be sampled from the headspace before GC-MS analysis. The resulting chromatograms showed a stable flat baseline with EtONO2 as the only eluting peak (retention time 2.75 min on a DB 5.625 column). Such an approach provides specificity and obviates the shortcomings of current detection methods employed to analyze seawater samples after digestion with persulfate. In negative chemical ionization mode, the method reached a detection limit of 0.5 μmol/kg TDN (7 ng/g N) and could be applied to quantify seawater samples with 1-25 μmol/kg TDN. On the upper end of the range, quantitation could be repeated within 1%, whereas on a 6 μmol/kg TDN sample repeatability was 2.3% on eight measurements. The method was employed in two proficiency testing exercises providing results in agreement with consensus values. We investigated the impact of reagent blank and we implemented a blank-matching optimal design to account for such contribution. Finally, we performed a study on the yield of persulfate oxidation for organic and inorganic nitrogen compounds typically present in seawater. Whilst nitrite and ammonium are fully converted to nitrate, more complex organic molecules showed recoveries varying from 70% to 100%.