Browsing by Subject "HPLC"
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(2013)Rhazya stricta Decne. is a small evergreen shrub belonging to the Apocynaceae family. The plant grows in South Asia and the Middle East, and in these areas it is used in traditional medicine. All parts of the plant are used in different preparations for a variety of purposes such as infections, bowel diseases, itching and diabetes. R. stricta synthesizes about a hundred different alkaloids, of which only a fraction has been studied closer. Some of the analyzed alkaloids have showed some interesting pharmacological properties such as antibacterial and cytotoxic properties. Because it is often both economically and ecologically unsustainable to cultivate or to collect large amounts of medicinal plants from nature, cell cultures have been developed from plants. The properties and synthesized substances of the cell cultures can be analysed and modified in laboratories. In the experimental part of this work, a system was developed for alkaloid extraction, fractionation and isolation from dried cell material from cultured R. stricta hairy root-cells. The goal was to develop a functioning system that eventually enables identification of the alkaloids synthesized by the cultured cells under given conditions. Alkaloids were extracted from 26 g of dried and ground cell mass. The fractionation of the alkaloids was performed with medium pressure liquid chromatography (MPLC) and the fractions were analyzed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The alkaloids were purified by horizontal TLC and preparative HPLC. Ion-pair chromatography was used for analyzing the extract, fractions and purified alkaloids. Five components from two fractions were eventually isolated. One of the components was tentatively identified as vincanine, but further analyzes have to be performed to identify all components reliably. In total, hairy root-cells seem to synthesize approximately 20 alkaloids with variable polarity.
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(2012)Estradiol is a female sex hormone which is metabolized to two different catechol estradiols. 2-hydroxyestradiol (2-OHE2) is normally the major catechol estradiol metabolite but breast cancer patients have increased amounts of genotoxic 4-hydroxyestradiol (4-OHE2) and it arises to predominant metabolite with these patients. These catechol estradiols can form reactive quinones that can bind to DNA and lead to mutations and finally cause cancer. Catechol-O-methyl transferase can add methyl groups and UDP-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) glucuronic acid groups to catechol estradiols. These phase II enzymes play important role in the inactivation of catechol estradiols because only non-conjugated catechol estradiols can be oxidized to quinones. The aim of this study was to find out which human UGTs catalyze glucuronidation of 2-OHE2 or 4-OHE2, how many different glucuronides are formed and in which part of the substrate glucuronic acid is added. To answer these questions chromatography methods for 2-OHE2 and 4-OHE2 glucuronides were developed using HPLC. Eleven UGT-enzymes glucuronidate 2-OHE2. UGTs 1A1, 1A7 and 1A10 form two different glucuronides and UGTs 1A3, 1A8, 1A9, 2A1, 2A2, 2A3, 2B7 and 2B15 form only the second glucuronide. It was possible to detect three different glucuronides for 4-OHE2 but the amount of the first glucuronide was under quantification limit. UGT1A10 catalyzed the formation of the second glucuronide and UGTs 1A7, 1A8, 1A9, 2B7 and 2B15 catalyzed the formation of the last glucuronide. One aim of the study was to find out which part of the substrate is glucuronidated but this aim was not achieved because suitable standards were not available.
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(2021)Plant cell culture can be used for the production of valuable secondary metabolites. Inspired by the previous studies focusing on capsaicinoid production, this study aimed for establishing plant cell cultures of Capsicum chinense to produce capsinoids. Capsinoids are non-pungent capsaicinoid analogues with potential health benefits. Another aim of this study was to determine the α-solanine content in Capsicum plants and cell cultures to ensure that no toxic amounts are formed during the cell culture. Cell cultures of non-pungent Capsicum chinense cultivars, Trinidad Pimento and Aji Dulce strain 2, were established, and the cultures were fed with intermediates, vanillin and vanillyl alcohol, to enhance the production. In addition, cell cultures of extremely pungent Trinidad Scorpion cultivar were established and they were fed with vanillyl alcohol to study if this would result in formation of capsinoids instead of capsaicinoids. A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with UV detection was validated for determining the capsiate contents of the cell culture samples and fruit samples for comparison. To analyze the α-solanine content of the cell culture samples and leaves and flowers of three cultivars belonging to three different Capsicum species, an HPLC-UV method was validated for this purpose as well. Despite validating a sensitive and specific method for capsiate analysis, no detectable amounts of capsiate were detected in any of the cell culture samples. Cell cultures of pungent cultivars did not produce detectable amounts of capsaicinoids either. Results from analyzing the real fruit samples were in accordance with previous literature reports, and Aji Dulce fruits were found to contain higher amounts of capsiate compared to Trinidad Pimento, although having only one indoor grown Aji Dulce fruit analyzed limits the reliability. The analytical method for determining α-solanine content had problems with internal standard and specificity. This method could be used for making rough estimates about the possible α-solanine content. No hazardous amounts were detected in any of the cell culture samples. Only one sample consisting of Aji Dulce young leaves could contain α-solanine slightly above the limits set for commercial potatoes. Results with flowers of Rocoto San Pedro Orange (C. pubescens) and Aji Omnicolor (C. baccatum) were inconclusive and it couldn’t be ruled out that they might contain large amounts of α-solanine. The reason why capsinoids, or even capsaicinoids, were not detected in the cell culture samples remains unsolved, but it could be speculated that capsinoids might degrade in the cell culture environment or that selection of cultivar or cell line is critical. This study gave further proof to the previous assumptions that chili leaves are safe and should not contain notable amounts of α-solanine.
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(2016)Prolyl oligopeptidase (PREP) is a serine protease which is extensively present in the mammalian system and especially abundant in the brain. Despite the long research history of PREP its physiological function has remained unclear. PREP has been suggested to regulate the functions of many bioactive peptides by hydrolysis and on the other hand to participate in several intracellular processes probably via direct protein-protein interactions. One of the functions suggested for PREP is the regulation of the brain neurotransmitter systems and based on, for instance, the location in the brain PREP has been connected to both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter systems. The literature review of this thesis first describe the brain neurotransmitter systems associated to PREP in general with some examples of diseases related to their malfunctions. In addition the structure of PREP and its location in the brain, both subcellular and cellular levels, and in distinct neurotransmitter systems, are presented, after which the different proposed functions for PREP are reviewed. The aim of the experimental part of this thesis was to investigate the effects of PREP on the brain neurotransmitter concentrations in the mouse nigrostriatal pathway and also to mouse motor behavior. The main research methods were microdialysis, tissue assays and cylinder test. The study was composed of two sections with five week duration each. The first section was performed with wild-type mice expressing naturally PREP and the second section with PREP-knockout (ko) mice and their wild-type littermates. The mice were injected unilaterally above the substantia nigra with adeno associated (AAV1) hPREP viral vector or with AAV1-eGFP (green fluorescent protein) viral vector as a control treatment. The cylinder test was carried out before the injection, and two and four weeks afterwards. Microdialysis was used to study the actions of PREP on the extracellular concentrations of dopamine (DA) and its metabolites dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the major metabolite of serotonin (5-HT). In addition to the baseline assay the concentrations were measured after two amphetamine treatments (10 and 30 µM) administered via the microdialysis probe. The probe guide cannulas were inserted to mice striatums 1-2 weeks before the microdialysis measurement. In the end of the experiment the tissue concentrations of DA, DOPAC, HVA, 5-HT and 5-HIAA were measured from striatum and substantia nigra. Both the microdialysis and tissue sample concentrations were quantified with high performance liquid chromatography. In the first study section the PREP enzyme activity was also determined from striatum. Neither the complete deprivation nor over-expression of PREP in the nigrostriatal pathway had clear or consistent effects on the levels of neurotransmitters studied when compared to naturally occurring PREP expression. When comparing the differences between control treated groups of PREP-ko and littermate mice, a greater amphetamine stimulated DA-levels was seen in the former group proposing negative regulatory influence of PREP. In both study sections the tissue assay results were difficult to interpret due to observed responses also with AAV1-eGFP control treatment in comparison with untreated side of the brain. This was seen as a lower DA- and DOPAC-levels in substantia nigra and thus the meaning of the changes caused by PREP treatment is hard to comprehend. The results of the cylinder test may implicate some protective effect of the PREP-ko-genotype against viral vector injections in general. Then again the existence of compensatory mechanisms is possible when using knockout animals and thus the genotype differences are hardly ever unequivocal. The results of this thesis do not suggest outright regulatory effects of PREP on the neurotransmitter functions in the mouse nigrostriatal pathway although the confirmation of this requires further studies, especially in regard to GABAergic and glutamatergic systems. Studies should include a scale of different behavioral tests of motor activity and repeated microdialysis experiment with some defining method changes. The possible function and mechanisms of PREP as a regulator of neurotransmitter intake or release is rationale to study at molecular level with applicable methods.
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(2014)Parkinson's disease causes changes in the basal ganglia GABAergic neurotransmission in addition to the well-known dopaminergic changes. These GABAergic modulations may cause somed of the symptoms not responding well to the standard dopaminergic medication. Neurotrophic factors are a group of endogenous proteins showing promise as a future treatment for Parkinson's disease. They are known to have neuroprotective and neurorestorative effects on the dopaminergic cells. Their effects to the GABAergic cells are still mostly unknown. Intrastriatal injection of GDNF to rats caused significantly slower weight gain compared to CDNF, MANF one week after stereotaxic operation (p=0,002 for CDNF vs. GDNF and p<0,001 for MANF vs. GDNF). Difference to the vehicle (phosphate buffered saline) used as a negative control was not statistically significant (p=0,055). Three weeks after the operation the differences between the treatment groups were no longer statistically significant. Because of problems with the separation in analysis, microdialysis samples remain still to be analysed. To help the analysis of GABA in the future we determined the analytical parameters of the analytical apparatus. We also defined differences in probe permeability between 1 mm and 2 mm probes and between old and new batches. GABA analysis was performed with a HPLC-fluorometric detection of o-phtaldialdehyde-derived GABA. Detection limit for old apparatus was 7,2 nM and for new apparatus 6,2 nM in a sample of 15 µl (0,11 pmol and 93 fmol respectively). Quantification limits defined were 22 nM and 19 nM (0,33 pmol and 0,28 pmol) for the old and the new apparatus, respectively. Upper limit of quantification was estimated to be 246 nM (3,7 pmol). Probes had significant differences in permeability between 1 mm and 2 mm probes, as well as between batches. The variance of permeability of 1 mm probes was estimated to be approximately twofold compared to the 2 mm probes. Furthermore the permeability of 1 mm probes varied between batches significantly. An average of permeability of the old batch was 34 % lower than that of a new batch (p<0,001).
Now showing items 1-5 of 5