Jack London and White Fang: a lost struggle

The California State Parks curators granted access to artifacts owned by Jack London that are in storage in their Sonoma Barracks in Sonoma, CA. A medicine case, drug vials, and various paper documents that covered the period of his life from 1906 to 1915 were examined for drug residues left on their surface. All the objects were tested with the non-invasive surface analysis EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) technology, which consist of a foil studded with ground mixed-bed cation/anion exchangers as well as with C$_{8}$ and C$_{18}$ resins. The harvested material collected by the foils was analysed via GC-MS and the following 12 drugs were identified: N-(4-ethoxyphenyl) acetamide, phenyl salicylic acid, morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, 3-acetylmorphine, diacetylmorphine, dipenteneglycol, quinine dihydrochloride, quinine base, atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine. Despite the claims by his biographers that he used opium, morphine, and heroin on a regular basis this assertion could not be confirmed by the chemical analyses of the objects here tested. Only two opioids were discovered, morphine and diacetylmorphine (heroin) both of which could have been derived from the use of common, legal (over-the-counter) flu and cough medications

Jack London and White Fang: a lost struggle

The California State Parks curators granted access to artifacts owned by Jack London that are in storage in their Sonoma Barracks in Sonoma, CA. A medicine case, drug vials, and various paper documents that covered the period of his life from 1906 to 1915 were examined for drug residues left on their surface. All the objects were tested with the non-invasive surface analysis EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) technology, which consist of a foil studded with ground mixed-bed cation/anion exchangers as well as with C$_{8}$ and C$_{18}$ resins. The harvested material collected by the foils was analysed via GC-MS and the following 12 drugs were identified: N-(4-ethoxyphenyl) acetamide, phenyl salicylic acid, morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, 3-acetylmorphine, diacetylmorphine, dipenteneglycol, quinine dihydrochloride, quinine base, atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine. Despite the claims by his biographers that he used opium, morphine, and heroin on a regular basis this assertion could not be confirmed by the chemical analyses of the objects here tested. Only two opioids were discovered, morphine and diacetylmorphine (heroin) both of which could have been derived from the use of common, legal (over-the-counter) flu and cough medications

In taberna quando sumus: od biblijskog opijanja do proteomike vina

Analysis of white and red wine trace proteomes via capture with combinatorial peptide ligand libraries (CPLL) is reported here. Most of the alcoholic beverages tested (all of Italian origin) were found to contain only traces of casein (on average from 20 to 60 µg/L, with a detectability of as low as 1 µg/L) and not any grape protein any longer, as they had been fined with bovine casein (surprisingly also red wines for which the typical fining agent is egg albumin). However, analysis of untreated white wine (Recioto, from Garganega grapes in the Veneto region) via CPLL capture indeed permitted to detect close to 100 unique gene products from the grapes, suggesting the possibility of proteotyping grand crus, i.e. those aged, high quality wines that should not be treated with fining agents. Thus the CPLL technique could become a formidable tool for traceability of beverages in particular and of foodstuff in general. For trace protein analysis, a new, most powerful CPLL methodology emerges: capture at pH=2.2 in 0.1 % trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) under the conditions mimicking reversed-phase mechanisms of adsorption.U radu su prikazani rezultati analize proteina u tragovima u crnim i bijelim vinima i uspoređeni pomoću datoteka rekombiniranih peptidnih liganada (CPLL). Ispitana su vina talijanskog podrijetla. U većini je uzoraka pronađen kazein u tragovima (prosječno od 20 do 60 µg/L, s pragom detekcije već od 1 µg/L), ali ni jedan protein iz grožđa, jer su sva vina bila pročišćena goveđim kazeinom, uključujući i crna vina koja se obično pročišćuju albuminom iz jaja. Međutim, analizom netretiranog bijelog vina (Recioto iz grožđa sorte Garganega, regija Veneto) pomoću datoteka rekombiniranih peptidnih liganada opaženo je gotovo 100 jedinstvenih produkata gena iz grožđa, što omogućava karakterizaciju proteoma vina grand cru, visokokvalitetnih odležanih vina koja inače ne treba pročišćavati. Stoga bi datoteke rekombiniranih peptidnih liganada mogle poslužiti kao odličan alat za otkrivanje proteina u tragovima u hrani i piću. Novom metodom CPLL pri pH=2,2 u prisutnosti 0,1 % trifluorooctene kiseline omogućena je analiza proteina u uvjetima koji oponašaju mehanizme njihove adsorpcije pri kromatografiji obrnutih faza

Fiat Lux ... how Alessandro Volta illuminated his scripts

The ink used by Volta in his scripts appears to be a very complex mixture. Our analysis of the eluates from the EVA diskettes (via GCXGC/TOFMS) has revealed the presence of more than 1800 unique metabolites. The ink thus appears to be a very complex combination of different ingredients, mainly consisting of tannins, vegetable oils and resins together with root and wood dyes. In particular, the presence of hydroxy and dihydroxyanthraquinones, as well as natural quinoids, evidenced the use of madder dyes from Rubiaceae as an important component of this ink. Natural quinoids, based on a 9, 10-anthraquinone skeleton, hydroquinone and anthrone derivatives, and even the specific marker of alizarin, indicate the use of the Rubia tinctorum. Additionally, the presence of several signals of fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated mono and dicarboxylic acids, as well as of the typical signals of Pinaceae resins substantiated the use of a vegetable oil and colophony. Several signals of cyclic monosaccharides suggested also the use of natural gum (Acacia Senegal also known as Arabic gum). It is known that Arabic gum, as well as linseed oil, were often employed as thickeners to increase the viscosity of the ink and to protect it from excess absorption of atmospheric oxygen. Curiously, we also found characteristic signals from alkaloids such as Dioncophyllin A and B, typical metabolites from tropical/exotic plants such as Triphyophyllum, Habropeltatum and Dioncophyllum. To our reckoning such an extensive array of ingredients in inks adopted over millennia has never been reported

Fiat Lux ... how Alessandro Volta illuminated his scripts

The ink used by Volta in his scripts appears to be a very complex mixture. Our analysis of the eluates from the EVA diskettes (via GCXGC/TOFMS) has revealed the presence of more than 1800 unique metabolites. The ink thus appears to be a very complex combination of different ingredients, mainly consisting of tannins, vegetable oils and resins together with root and wood dyes. In particular, the presence of hydroxy and dihydroxyanthraquinones, as well as natural quinoids, evidenced the use of madder dyes from Rubiaceae as an important component of this ink. Natural quinoids, based on a 9, 10-anthraquinone skeleton, hydroquinone and anthrone derivatives, and even the specific marker of alizarin, indicate the use of the Rubia tinctorum. Additionally, the presence of several signals of fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated mono and dicarboxylic acids, as well as of the typical signals of Pinaceae resins substantiated the use of a vegetable oil and colophony. Several signals of cyclic monosaccharides suggested also the use of natural gum (Acacia Senegal also known as Arabic gum). It is known that Arabic gum, as well as linseed oil, were often employed as thickeners to increase the viscosity of the ink and to protect it from excess absorption of atmospheric oxygen. Curiously, we also found characteristic signals from alkaloids such as Dioncophyllin A and B, typical metabolites from tropical/exotic plants such as Triphyophyllum, Habropeltatum and Dioncophyllum. To our reckoning such an extensive array of ingredients in inks adopted over millennia has never been reported

Identification of distinct N-terminal truncated forms of prion protein in different Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease subtypes.

In prion diseases, the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) is converted to an insoluble and protease-resistant abnormal isoform termed PrP(Sc). In different prion strains, PrP(Sc) shows distinct sites of endogenous or exogenous proteolysis generating a core fragment named PrP27-30. Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most frequent human prion disease, clinically presents with a variety of neurological signs. As yet, the clinical variability observed in sCJD has not been fully explained by molecular studies relating two major types of PrP27-30 with unglycosylated peptides of 21 (type 1) and 19 kDa (type 2) and the amino acid methionine or valine at position 129. Recently, smaller C-terminal fragments migrating at 12 and 13 kDa have been detected in different sCJD phenotypes, but their significance remains unclear. By using two-dimensional immunoblot with anti-PrP antibodies, we identified two novel groups of protease-resistant PrP fragments in sCJD brain tissues. All sCJD cases with type 1 PrP27-30, in addition to MM subjects with type 2 PrP27-30, were characterized by the presence of unglycosylated PrP fragments of 16-17 kDa. Conversely, brain homogenates from patients VV and MV with type 2 PrP27-30 contained fully glycosylated PrP fragments, which after deglycosylation migrated at 17.5-18 kDa. Interestingly, PrP species of 17.5-18 kDa matched deglycosylated forms of the C1 PrP(C) fragment and were associated with tissue PrP deposition as plaque-like aggregates or amyloid plaques. These data show the presence of multiple PrP(Sc) conformations in sCJD and, in addition, shed new light on the correlation between sCJD phenotypes and disease-associated PrP molecules

Corrigendum to "Never boring: Non-invasive palaeoproteomics of mummified human skin" [J. Archaeol. Sci. (2020) 105145]

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Polar Electrophoresis: Shape of Two-Dimensional Maps Is as Important as Size

The performance of two-dimensional electrophoresis in conventional gels in Cartesian coordinates (2-DE) vs. polar coordinates (2-PE) is here evaluated. Although 2-DE is performed in much longer Immobiline gels in the first dimension (17 cm) vs. barely 7-cm in 2-PE, an equivalent resolving power is found. Moreover, due to the possibility of running up to seven Immobiline strips in the radial gel format, the reproducibility of spot position is seen to be higher, this resulting in a 20% higher matching efficiency. As an extra bonus, strings of “isobaric” spots (i.e. polypeptides of identical mass with different pI values) are more resolved in the radial gel format, especially in the 10 to 30 kDa region, where the gel area fans out leaving extra space for spot resolution. In conclusion, this novel gel format in the second dimension of 2D gels is seen as an important improvement of this technique, still one of the most popular in proteome analysis

Low-Abundance Protein Enrichment for Medical Applications: The Involvement of Combinatorial Peptide Library Technique

The discovery of low- and very low-abundance proteins in medical applications is considered a key success factor in various important domains. To reach this category of proteins, it is essential to adopt procedures consisting of the selective enrichment of species that are present at extremely low concentrations. In the past few years pathways towards this objective have been proposed. In this review, a general landscape of the enrichment technology situation is made first with the presentation and the use of combinatorial peptide libraries. Then, a description of this peculiar technology for the identification of early-stage biomarkers for well-known pathologies with concrete examples is given. In another field of medical applications, the determination of host cell protein traces potentially present in recombinant therapeutic proteins, such as antibodies, is discussed along with their potentially deleterious effects on the health of patients on the one hand, and on the stability of these biodrugs on the other hand. Various additional applications of medical interest are disclosed for biological fluids investigations where the target proteins are present at very low concentrations (e.g., protein allergens)