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A sulfonamide-appended gemcitabine prodrug was newly produced. The prodrug was shown to efficiently distinguish GSH from cysteine and homocysteine. Upon reaction of this prodrug with GSH, which is relatively abundant in tumor cells, sulfonyl group cleavage occurred as well as active release of the drug GMC and a concomitant increase in the innate fluorescence intensity. As a proof of concept, colocalization experiments were carried out; these experiments demonstrated that the probe LHX resulted in, via receptor-mediated endocytosis, significantly improved therapeutic efficacy and few side effects. Thus, these results indicated the theranostic agent to be a promising "integrative" platform for efficient cancer therapy. The agent can be activated in real time, and not only be selectively monitored and localized by specific tumour cells, but also undergo cascaded cleavage to induce both a fluorogenic response and release of an active cytotoxic drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a simple assembly was designed via a capillary and a funnel-like cap to achieve liquid–gas compound pendant drop (CPD) microextraction with great convenience. Due to the increased contact area and adhesion force between the capillary tip and the drop, the proposed method provides considerable flexibility in producing CPDs with different air bubble sizes. Four pesticides were chosen as model analytes to evaluate the proposed method. By using a 1 μL chlorobenzene droplet containing a 1 μL air bubble at a stirring rate of 700 rpm, a 70 to 135-fold enrichment of pesticides was obtained within 3.4 minutes. As compared with a typical SDME, the proposed method showed a 2-fold increase of enrichment factors and a 4-fold decrease of extraction time. Improvement of the extraction efficiency could be ascribed to the increased surface area of the droplet, and the thin film phenomena further improved the extraction kinetics through effective agitation. The results indicate that CPD microextraction could serve as a promising sample pretreatment method for automated high-throughput analyses in a wide variety of research areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a mathematical model was proposed for calculating physico-chemical parameters and simulating the separation process of solutes in free-flow zone electrophoresis (FFZE). Computer software was developed and implemented in a Delphi XE2 environment based on the model, which comprises zone electrophoresis, electrolyte solution, hydrodynamics and diffusion as well as conversion equations. The simulation results reveal that (i) the software is capable of simulating a dynamic process of FFZE properly; (ii) the software can simulate operation parameters (e.g., electric field, flow rate and pH value) for experimental optimization; (iii) the simulator is able to display the final electropherogram of numerous analytes in FFZE; and (iv) the electropherogram of FFZE can be automatically converted to that of capillary zone electrophoresis. In order to verify the rationality and reliability of this software, the relevant experiments were conducted and further compared with the simulations. The comparisons demonstrated the high agreement between the simulations and the experiments as well as those cited from the relevant references. In addition, effective mobility, diffusion coefficient and concentration of solutes can be conveniently gained via the software. The developed mathematical model and designed software have evident significance for the optimization of experimental conditions and basic physico-chemical parameters in FFZE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a general mode and theory of moving chelation boundary based isotachophoresis (MCB-based ITP), together with the concept of decisive metal ion (DMI) having the maximum complexation constant (lg Kmax) with the chelator, were developed from a multi-MCB (mMCB) system. The theoretical deductions were: (i) the reaction boundary velocities in the mMCB system at steady state were equal to each other, resulting in a novel MCB-based ITP separation of metal ions; (ii) the boundary directions and velocities in the system were controlled by the fluxes of chelator and DMI, rather than other metal ions; and (iii) a controllable stacking of metal ions could be simultaneously achieved in the developed system. To demonstrate the deductions, a series of experiments were conducted by using model chelator of EDTA and metal ions of Cu(ii) and Co(ii) due to characteristic colors of blue [Cu–EDTA]2− and pink [Co–EDTA]2− complexes. The experiments demonstrated the correctness of theoretical deductions, indicating the validity of the developed model and theory of ITP. These findings provide guidance for the development of MRB-based ITP separation and stacking of metal ions in biological sample matrix and heavy metal ions in environmental samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As two important physico-chemical parameters, the acidic and alkaline residues of protein are of evident significance for the evaluation of protein properties and the design of relevant separation and analysis. However, there is still no electrophoretic method used for the direct detection of free acidic and alkaline residues of protein. Herein, we developed the concepts of moving reaction boundary (MRB) and MRB titration, relevant MRB titration theory, and the method of microdevice electrophoresis for the determination of free acidic and alkaline residues of protein. In the MRB titration, the boundary was created with acid or alkali and target protein immobilized via highly cross-linked polyacrylamide gel (PAG). It was theoretically revealed that the number of free acidic or alkaline residues of protein was as a function of MRB displacement in the electrophoretic titration system. As a proof of concept, seven model proteins were chosen for the determination of acidic or alkaline residues of protein via MRB titration. The results showed that the numbers of free acidic and alkaline residues of proteins detected were in good agreement with those obtained from the relevant amino sequences in the NCBI database, demonstrating the feasibility of the developed concept, theory and technique. The general methodology of MRB titration has potential application for inexpensive, facilitative and informative protein structure analysis of free acidic or alkaline residues of protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel moving redox reaction boundary (MRRB) model was developed for studying electrophoretic behaviors of analytes involving redox reaction on the principle of moving reaction boundary (MRB). Traditional potassium permanganate method was used to create the boundary model in agarose gel electrophoresis because of the rapid reaction rate associated with MnO4− ions and Fe2+ ions. MRB velocity equation was proposed to describe the general functional relationship between velocity of moving redox reaction boundary (VMRRB) and concentration of reactant, and can be extrapolated to similar MRB techniques. Parameters affecting the redox reaction boundary were investigated in detail. Under the selected conditions, good linear relationship between boundary movement distance and time were obtained. The potential application of MRRB in electromigration redox reaction titration was performed in two different concentration levels. The precision of the VMRRB was studied and the relative standard deviations were below 8.1%, illustrating the good repeatability achieved in this experiment. The proposed MRRB model enriches the MRB theory and also provides a feasible realization of manual control of redox reaction process in electrophoretic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]