Towards the non-invasive proteomic analysis of cultural heritage objects

Barberis, Elettra; Baiocco, S; Conte, Eleonora; Gosetti, Fabio; Antonio, Rafael; Zilberstein, Gleb; Righetti, Pier Giorgio; Marengo, Emílio; Manfredi, Marcello

doi:10.1016/j.microc.2018.03.033

Cited by 34 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…A nice summary of all these activities can be found in a recent review [12]. We additionally underline the fact that the EVA films have been fully characterized in their physicochemical properties and they have been amply proven not only to be very efficient in harvesting proteinaceous material as well as plenty of other metabolites, including pigments present in paintings and frescoes, but they have additionally been demonstrated not to contaminate or damage any item under investigation [13,14].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“1984”: What Orwell could not predict. Proteomic analysis of his scripts

Saravayskaya

Zilberstein

et al. 2020

Electrophoresis

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George Orwell, fighter for the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War, was shot through the throat by a sniper on 20th May 1937 and nearly killed. After receiving only a summary external treatment, on the 29th, he was cured in a Barcelona hospital where he was infected by the Koch bacillus. After fleeing from Spain on 23rd June 1937, he repaired to his cottage in Wallington, Hertfordshire, wherefrom he wrote a letter to Sergey Dynamov, Editor of Soviet journal “Foreign Literature.” This typewritten letter was analyzed by application of five EVA strips (ethylene vinyl acetate studded with strong cation and anion and with C8 and C18 resins; four on the corners and one over his signature), searching for biological traces. Upon elution of the captured biologicals, trypsin digestion and Orbitrap Fusion trihybrid mass spectrometer analyses, three of the five strips yielded clear traces of six unique proteins (via proteotypic peptides) of the tuberculosis bacterium. Additionally, MALDI TOF analysis of saliva of a tuberculosis patient and the EVA strip eluates gave a spectrum of 14 peptide bands (Mr 2700 to 6700 Da range) coincident between the two samples, thus, fully confirming Orwell's pathology. These results are attributed to saliva traces on Orwell's fingertips and to the fact that the letter was written on 2nd July 1937, when Orwell's pathology was at its peak.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“1984”: What Orwell could not predict. Proteomic analysis of his scripts

Saravayskaya

Zilberstein

et al. 2020

Electrophoresis

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“…Among meta-omic approaches, other techniques have been recently introduced into the cultural heritage field. These novel methods are still rarely used and include metabolomic studies of wood and brick [ 54 ], wax seals [ 55 ], photographs [ 56 ], as well as metaproteomic studies of books [ 57 ], historical wood, frescoes and canvases [ 58 , 59 ], mummies and documents [ 60 ]. The metabolomic approach allows the investigation of many different compounds as it can detect and analyze proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates.…”

Section: Inspection Of Methodologies Applied For Identification Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bad and the Good—Microorganisms in Cultural Heritage Environments—An Update on Biodeterioration and Biotreatment Approaches

et al. 2021

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Cultural heritage objects constitute a very diverse environment, inhabited by various bacteria and fungi. The impact of these microorganisms on the degradation of artworks is undeniable, but at the same time, some of them may be applied for the efficient biotreatment of cultural heritage assets. Interventions with microorganisms have been proven to be useful in restoration of artworks, when classical chemical and mechanical methods fail or produce poor or short-term effects. The path to understanding the impact of microbes on historical objects relies mostly on multidisciplinary approaches, combining novel meta-omic technologies with classical cultivation experiments, and physico-chemical characterization of artworks. In particular, the development of metabolomic- and metatranscriptomic-based analyses associated with metagenomic studies may significantly increase our understanding of the microbial processes occurring on different materials and under various environmental conditions. Moreover, the progress in environmental microbiology and biotechnology may enable more effective application of microorganisms in the biotreatment of historical objects, creating an alternative to highly invasive chemical and mechanical methods.

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“…Al momento di terminare, i lettori potrebbero obiettare che, sebbene abbiamo presentato molte applicazioni della tecnica EVA, non abbiamo fornito alcuna prova della sua "innocenza", vale a dire l'assenza di danni o contaminazione di qualsiasi oggetto in esame. Obiezione giusta, quindi citiamo qui due articoli di Manfredi et al [41] e Barberis et al [42] che effettivamente provano con approfondite analisi che tutti gli oggetti analizzati (compresi dipinti su tela e affreschi) sono stati lasciati intatti. Nelle stesse due relazioni, le proprietà fisico-chimiche dei fogli EVA sono descritte accuratamente.…”

Section: Conclusioniunclassified

NUOVE ESCHE PER PESCARE NEL <em>MARE MAGNUM DELL’EREDITÀ CULTURALE</em>

Righetti¹,

Zilberstein²

2021

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We describe here a novel tool for exploring documents pertaining to the world Cultural Heritage while avoiding their contamination or damage. Known under the acronym EVA, it consists of a plastic foil of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate studded with strong cation and anion resins admixed with C8 and C18 hydrophobic beads. When applied to any surface such foils can harvest any type of surface material, which is then eluted and analysed via standard means, such as GS/MS (typically for metabolites), MS/MS (for peptide and protein analysis), X-ray (for elemental analysis). We briefly review here a number of past data, such as screening of original documents by Bulgakov, Chekov, Casanova, Kepler, while dealing in extenso with very recent data, pertaining to Orwell and Stalin and analysis of the skin of an Egyptian mummy. The technique was also successfully applied to paintings, such as the Donna Nuda at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, attributed to Leonardo and his school. This novel methodology represents a formidable tool for exploring the past life of famous authors, scientist and literates in that it can detect traces of their pathologies and even drug consumption left by saliva and sweat traces on their original hand-written documents.

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Towards the non-invasive proteomic analysis of cultural heritage objects

Cited by 34 publications

References 20 publications

“1984”: What Orwell could not predict. Proteomic analysis of his scripts

“1984”: What Orwell could not predict. Proteomic analysis of his scripts

The Bad and the Good—Microorganisms in Cultural Heritage Environments—An Update on Biodeterioration and Biotreatment Approaches

NUOVE ESCHE PER PESCARE NEL <em>MARE MAGNUM DELL’EREDITÀ CULTURALE</em>

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