BACKGROUND There is interest in newborn screening of lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) because of the availability of treatments. Pilot studies have used tandem mass spectrometry with flow injection of samples to achieve multiplex detection of enzyme products. We report a multiplexing method of 9 enzymatic assays that uses HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). METHODS The assay of 9 enzymes was carried out in 1 or 2 buffers with a cassette of substrates and internal standards and 1 or 2 punches of a dried blood spot (DBS) from a newborn screening card as the source of enzymes. The pre–HPLC-MS/MS sample preparation required only 4 liquid transfers before injection into a dual-column HPLC equipped with switching valves to direct the flow to separation and column equilibration. Product-specific and internal standard–specific ion fragmentations were used for MS/MS quantification in the selected reaction monitoring mode. RESULTS Analysis of blood spots from 58 random newborns and lysosomal storage disease–affected patients showed that the assay readily distinguished affected from nonaffected individuals. The time per 9-plex analysis (1.8 min) was sufficiently short to be compatible with the workflow of newborn screening laboratories. CONCLUSIONS HPLC-MS/MS provides a viable alternative to flow-injection MS/MS for the quantification of lysosomal enzyme activities. It is possible to assay 9 lysosomal enzymes using 1 or 2 reaction buffers, thus minimizing the number of separate incubations necessary.

Applying chemical additives (molecule inhibitors or dispersants) is one of the common ways to control asphaltene agglomeration and precipitation. However, it is not clear why at some conditions the synthetic flocculation inhibitors as well as resins not only do not inhibit the asphaltene agglomeration,, they may also promote it, and why the increasing of the additive concentration may lead to the diminishing of their efficacy. To clarify this issue, in the present work we have performed a set of vapor preassure osmometry experiments investigating the asphaltene agglomeration inhibition by commercial and new inhibitor molecules in toluene and o-diclorobenzene. Monte Carlo computer modeling has been applied to interpret some unexpected trends of molar mass of the Puerto Ceiba asphaltene clusters at different concentrations of inhibitor, assuming that inhibitors efficiency is directly related to their adsorption on the surface of asphaltene or its complexes. It has been found that a self-assembly of inhibitor molecules, induced by relative lyophilic or lyophobic interactions, may be a reason of the inhibitor efficacy declining.

Tandem mass spectrometry for the multiplex and quantitative analysis of enzyme activities in dried blood spots on newborn screening cards has emerged as a powerful technique for early assessment of lysosomal storage diseases. Here we report the design and process-scale synthesis of substrates for the enzymes α-l-iduronidase, iduronate-2-sulfatase, and N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulfatase that are used for newborn screening of mucopolysaccharidosis types I, II, and VI. The products contain a bisamide unit that is hypothesized to readily protonate in the gas phase, which improves detection sensitivity by tandem mass spectrometry. The products contain a benzoyl group, which provides a useful site for inexpensive deuteration, thus facilitating the preparation of internal standards for the accurate quantification of enzymatic products. Finally, the reagents are designed with ease of synthesis in mind, thus permitting scale-up preparation to support worldwide newborn screening of lysosomal storage diseases. The new reagents provide the most sensitive assay for the three lysosomal enzymes reported to date as shown by their performance in reactions using dried blood spots as the enzyme source. Also, the ratio of assay signal to that measured in the absence of blood (background) is superior to all previously reported mucopolysaccharidosis types I, II, and VI assays.

Background Treatments are being developed for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), suggesting the need for eventual newborn screening. Previous studies have shown that sulfatide molecular species are increased in the urine of MLD patients compared to samples from non-MLD individuals, but there is no data using dried blood spots (DBS), the most common sample available for newborn screening laboratories. Methods We used ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC/MS/MS) to quantify sulfatides in DBS and dried urine spots from 14 MLD patients and 50 non-MLD individuals. Results Several sulfatide molecular species were increased in dried urine samples from all MLD samples compared to non-MLD samples. Sulfatides, especially low molecular species, were increased in DBS from MLD patients, but the sulfatide levels were relatively low. There was good separation in sulfatide levels between MLD and non-MLD samples when dried urine spots were used, but not with DBS, because DBS from non-MLD individuals have measurable levels of sulfatides. Conclusion Sulfatide accumulation studies in urine, but not in DBS, emerges as the method of choice if newborn screening is to be proposed for MLD.

The structural properties of fluids whose molecules interact via potentials with a hard core plus two piece-wise constant sections of different widths and heights are presented. These follow from the more general development previously introduced for potentials with a hard core plus n piece-wise constant sections [Condens. Matter Phys. 15, 23602 (2012)] in which use was made of a semi-analytic rational-function approximation method. The results of illustrative cases comprising eight different combinations of wells and shoulders are compared both with simulation data and with those that follow from the numerical solution of the PercusYevick and hypernetted-chain integral equations. It is found that the rational-function approximation generally predicts a more accurate radial distribution function than the Percus-Yevick theory and is comparable or even superior to the hypernetted-chain theory. This superiority over both integral equation theories is lost, however, at high densities, especially as the widths of the wells and/or the barriers increase.