Elena Chekmeneva

Quantification of the effect of conformational restriction on supramolecular effective molarities.

The association constants for a family of 96 closely related zinc porphyrin-pyridine ligand complexes have been measured in two different solvents, toluene and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE). The zinc porphyrin receptors are equipped with phenol side arms, which can form intramolecular H-bonds with ester or amide side arms on the pyridine ligands. These association constants were used to construct 64 chemical double mutant cycles, which measure the free energy contributions of intramolecular H-bonding interactions to the overall stability of the complexes. Measurement of association constants for the corresponding intermolecular H-bonding interactions allowed determination of the effective molarities (EM) for the intramolecular interactions. Comparison of ligands that feature amide H-bond acceptors and ester H-bonds at identical sites on the ligand framework show that the values of EM are practically identical. Similarly, the values of EM are practically identical in toluene and in TCE. However, comparison of two ligand series that differ by one degree of torsional freedom shows that the values of EM for the flexible ligands are an order of magnitude lower than for the corresponding rigid ligands. This observation holds for a range of different supramolecular architectures with different degrees of receptor-ligand complementarity and suggests that in general the cost of freezing a rotor in supramolecular complexes is of the order of 5 kJ/mol.

Evidence for partially bound states in cooperative molecular recognition interfaces

A zinc porphyrin equipped with four amide H-bonding sites provides a rigid molecular receptor for the study of cooperative multipoint binding interactions. The interaction of this receptor with a variety of pyridine ligands bearing zero, one, and two H-bonding sites has been studied using UV/vis absorption, (1)H and (31)P NMR spectroscopy, and isothermal titration calorimetry in five different solvents. The results are analyzed in terms of a bound state that populates an ensemble of different complexes in which zero, one, or two of the potential H-bond interactions are formed. The key parameter that determines the behavior of the system is the product of the association constant for the H-bond interaction, K(H), and the effective molarity for the intramolecular interaction, EM. In the system reported here, EM is 0.1-1 M for all of the intramolecular interactions. For strong H-bonds (large K(H) in nonpolar solvents), all of the interactions are formed in the complex and the fully bound state dominates. In this case, additional binding interactions produce incremental increases in complex stability. However, for weaker H-bonds (small K(H) in polar solvents), the formation of additional interactions does not lead to an increase in the overall stability of the complex, due to the population of partially bound states.

Thermodynamics of Cd2+ and Zn2+ binding by the phytochelatin (γ-Glu-Cys)4-Gly and its precursor glutathione

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was used to study the binding of Cd(2+) and Zn(2+) by glutathione (GSH) and phytochelatins (PC(n)), the metal sequestering compounds in plants and algae. The results are compared with those obtained by differential pulse polarography (DPP) assisted by multivariate curve resolution with alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) and by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). ITC allows one to determine (i) the stoichiometries of the different complexes (and confirms those found by DPP/MCR-ALS and ESI-MS) and (ii) their binding and thermodynamic parameters. For Cd-PC(4), the sequential binding sites model with two identical sites yields the best fitting of ITC curves and confirms the presence of CdPC(4) and Cd(2)PC(4) complexes. For Zn-PC(4), exothermic formation of ZnPC(4) is reported. Conditional stability and formation constants for Cd-GSH and Zn-GSH are determined from the fitting of the proper model to experimental ITC curves. The effect of different buffers in the complexation processes shows the key role of the choice of the buffer in calorimetric study.

Temperature-Switched Binding of a RuII(dppz)/DNA Light-Switch Complex†

MLCT-based emission of this chiral complex is only “switched on” when it intercalates into the duplex. Numerous studies designed to identify the exact nature of the binding site of the complex, to outline the binding differences between its L and D enantiomers, and to delineate the photophysical details of its binding-induced optical response have been carried out. In order to facilitate the construction of mixed-motif and oligonuclear DNA binding substrates based on the Ru(dppz) moiety, we investigated the properties of achiral [Ru(tpy)(L)(dppz)] complexes (tpy = tris(pyrazolyl)methane, L = monodentate N-donor ligand). Recently, we demonstrated that the DNA binding properties of such systems are highly dependent on small changes in the structure of L; for example, while complex 1 is a typical light-switch DNA intercalator with high binding affinities for duplexes (Kb> 10 m ), complex 2 shows reduced interaction with DNA. Through experimental and computational studies, we ascribed this effect to unfavorable steric interactions involving the amino group of the pyridyl-based pyNH2 ancillary ligand preventing intercalation of the dppz moiety. To explore this unusual behavior more fully, the thermodynamic interaction of 2 with calf thymus (CT)-DNA at 25 8C as well as 10 8C and 35 8C were initially investigated through isothermal calorimetry (ITC). To aid comparisons, the interaction of 1 with CT-DNA under the same conditions was also studied. Although we have previously reported an ITC study on the interaction of 1 with synthetic homopolymers, this is the first study on genomic B-DNA. At all three temperatures, complex 1 binds to CT-DNA through an endothermic, entropically driven interaction (see Table 1 and the Supporting Information). This kind of thermodynamic signature was seen for several other Ru-

Study of the Hg2+ binding with chelation therapy agents by differential pulse voltammetry on rotating Au-disk electrode and electrospray ionization mass-spectrometry.

A recently proposed electroanalytical method, using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) on the rotating Au-disk electrode, and electrospray ionization mass-spectrometry (ESI-MS) has been applied to study the binding of the pharmaceutical chelating agents meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), sodium 2,3-dimercaptopropanesulfate (DMPS) and D-penicillamine (D-Pen) with Hg(2+). From the use of voltammetric titrations it was possible to obtain a detailed picture of the complexation processes at concentrations much lower than in previous studies. Predominant species were Hg(Pen)(2), Hg(2)(DMSA)(2) and Hg(DMPS)(2). For Pen, Hg(Pen) was also deduced from DPV data, while Hg(2)(Pen)(4) from ESI-MS. For DMSA and DMPS, Hg(2)L species were detected by DPV, and Hg(2)L(3), Hg(3)L(3) as well as Hg(2)(DMPS)(2) and Hg(DMSA)(2) by ESI-MS. When possible, DPV data were analyzed by multivariate curve resolution with alternating least squares (MCR-ALS).

Development of a Rapid Microbore Metabolic Profiling Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry Approach for High-Throughput Phenotyping Studies

A rapid gradient microbore ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) method has been developed to provide a high-throughput analytical platform for the metabolic phenotyping of urine from large sample cohorts. The rapid microbore metabolic profiling (RAMMP) approach was based on scaling a conventional reversed-phase UPLC-MS method for urinary profiling from 2.1 mm × 100 mm columns to 1 mm × 50 mm columns, increasing the linear velocity of the solvent, and decreasing the gradient time to provide an analysis time of 2.5 min/sample. Comparison showed that conventional UPLC-MS and rapid gradient approaches provided peak capacities of 150 and 50, respectively, with the conventional method detecting approximately 19 000 features compared to the ∼6 000 found using the rapid gradient method. Similar levels of repeatability were seen for both methods. Despite the reduced peak capacity and the reduction in ions detected, the RAMMP method was able to achieve similar levels of group discrimination as conventional UPLC-MS when applied to rat urine samples obtained from investigative studies on the effects of acute 2-bromophenol and chronic acetaminophen administration. When compared to a direct infusion MS method of similar analysis time the RAMMP method provided superior selectivity. The RAMMP approach provides a robust and sensitive method that is well suited to high-throughput metabonomic analysis of complex mixtures such as urine combined with a 5-fold reduction in analysis time compared with the conventional UPLC-MS method.

Electroanalytical and isothermal calorimetric study of As(III) complexation by the metal poisoning remediators, 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonate and meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid

A recently developed methodology, which combines voltammetry, ITC, ESI-MS and several chemometric tools, has been applied for the first time to the study of As(III) complexes. The ligands considered, DMSA and DMPS, are commonly used to treat heavy metal poisoning. The study yields a reliable and consistent picture of the binding of As(III) by the chelating therapy agents DMSA and DMPS providing an unambiguous description of the stoichiometries of the complexes (ML(2), with the occasional appearance of ML in the case of DMSA), both ligands have stability constants of the same order, with a logβ(2) of 9.2 and 9.8, respectively. These values confirm the potential efficiency of both ligands in the treatment of As(III) poisoning.

Optimization and Application of Direct Infusion Nanoelectrospray HRMS Method for Large-Scale Urinary Metabolic Phenotyping in Molecular Epidemiology

Large-scale metabolic profiling requires the development of novel economical high-throughput analytical methods to facilitate characterization of systemic metabolic variation in population phenotypes. We report a fit-for-purpose direct infusion nanoelectrospray high-resolution mass spectrometry (DI-nESI-HRMS) method with time-of-flight detection for rapid targeted parallel analysis of over 40 urinary metabolites. The newly developed 2 min infusion method requires <10 μL of urine sample and generates high-resolution MS profiles in both positive and negative polarities, enabling further data mining and relative quantification of hundreds of metabolites. Here we present optimization of the DI-nESI-HRMS method in a detailed step-by-step guide and provide a workflow with rigorous quality assessment for large-scale studies. We demonstrate for the first time the application of the method for urinary metabolic profiling in human epidemiological investigations. Implementation of the presented DI-nESI-HRMS method enabled cost-efficient analysis of >10 000 24 h urine samples from the INTERMAP study in 12 weeks and >2200 spot urine samples from the ARIC study in <3 weeks with the required sensitivity and accuracy. We illustrate the application of the technique by characterizing the differences in metabolic phenotypes of the USA and Japanese population from the INTERMAP study.

Development of nanoelectrospray high resolution isotope dilution mass spectrometry for targeted quantitative analysis of urinary metabolites: application to population profiling and clinical studies

An automated chip-based electrospray platform was used to develop a high-throughput nanoelectrospray high resolution mass spectrometry (nESI-HRMS) method for multiplexed parallel untargeted and targeted quantitative metabolic analysis of urine samples. The method was demonstrated to be suitable for metabolic analysis of large sample numbers and can be applied to large-scale epidemiological and stratified medicine studies. The method requires a small amount of sample (5 μL of injectable volume containing 250 nL of original sample), and the analysis time for each sample is three minutes per sample to acquire data in both negative and positive ion modes. Identification of metabolites was based on the high resolution accurate mass and tandem mass spectrometry using authentic standards. The method was validated for 8 targeted metabolites and was shown to be precise and accurate. The mean accuracy of individual measurements being 106% and the intra- and inter-day precision (expressed as relative standard deviations) were 9% and 14%, respectively. Selected metabolites were quantified by standard addition calibration using the stable isotope labelled internal standards in a pooled urine sample, to account for any matrix effect. The multiple point standard addition calibration curves yielded correlation coefficients greater than 0.99, and the linear dynamic range was more than three orders of magnitude. As a proof-of-concept the developed method was applied for targeted quantitative analysis of a set of 101 urine samples obtained from female participants with different pregnancy outcomes. In addition to the specifically targeted metabolites, several other metabolites were quantified relative to the internal standards. Based on the calculated concentrations, some metabolites showed significant differences according to different pregnancy outcomes. The acquired high resolution full-scan data were used for further untargeted fingerprinting and improved the differentiation of urine samples based on pregnancy outcome.

A combined standardless electrochemical method for determining lead in aqueous solutions

A combined standardless method for determining lead(II) in aqueous solutions is proposed. The method is based on lows stripping voltammetry and controlled-potential coulometry.