Dosimetry based on electron spin resonance(ESR) analysis of radiation induced free radicals in amino acids is relevant to biological dosimetry applications. Alanine detectors are without walls and are tissue equivalent. Therefore, alanine ESR dosimetry looks promising for use in the therapy level. The dose range of the alanine/ESR dosimetry system can be extended down to l Gy. In a water phantom the absorbed dose of electrons generated by a medical linear accelerator of different initial energies (6~21 MeV) and therapeutic dose levels(1~60 Gy) was measured. Furthermore, depth dose measurements carried out with alanine dosimeters were compared with ionization chamber measurements. As the results, the measured absorbed doses for shallow depth of initial electron energies above 15 MeV were higher by 2~ 5% than those calculated by nominal energy CE factors. This seems to be caused by low energy scattered beams generated from the scattering foil and electron cones of beam projecting device in medical linear accelerator.
Alanine ; Amino Acids ; Free Radicals ; Particle Accelerators ; Spectrum Analysis* ; Water

OBJECTIVETo determine the contents of amino acids in Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum of different specifications for controlling the quality.

METHODThe contents of 18 kinds of amino acids were determined by amino acid analyzer.

RESULTThe correlation coefficients of 18 kinds of amino acids were all greater than 0.997, the average recovery were all between 99.1%-108.1% with RSDs less than 2.0%. All Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum samples of 29 different specifications contained 17 kinds of amino acids and 7 kinds of essential amino acids. The content of total amino acids in wax slices is relative higher. The content in first born antlers is higher than that in reborn antlers.

CONCLUSIONThis method is suitable for the determination of amino acids in Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum, it provides good reference for the quality control of Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum.

Amino Acids ; analysis ; Animals ; Antlers ; chemistry ; Deer ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

OBJECTIVETo establish the double HPLC fingerprints of water-soluble composition and amino acids precolumn derivative reagent of 13 batches of Isatidis Radix micropower.

METHODThe gradient elution was adopted with Hypersil BDS C18 column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm). Water-soluble ingredients were detected with acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid solution as mobile phase, flow rate 0.5 mL x min(-1), column temperature 20 degrees C, and the injection volume 10 microL. Amino acid ingredient were derived by PITC, and then were detected with mobile phase of 0.1 mol x L(-1) sodium acetate buffer solution (pH 6.5) - acetonitrile, flow rate 1.0 mL x min(-1), column temperature 30 degrees C, and the injection volume 5 microL. Both of the absorption wavelengths were 254 nm. Pharmacopoeia Commission "Chinese chromatographic fingerprint evaluation system (version 2.0)" was adopted to analyse, fingerprints of Isatidis Radix micropower were established, at the same time 4 main ingredients were recognized by the SPSS cluster analysis.

RESULTCommon mode of Fingerprint to water-soluble and amino acids ingredient of Isatidis Radix micropower was established, then adenosine, epigoitrin and 15 amino acids were identified as characteristic peaks. Cluster analysis showed that different kinds of the herbal Isatidis Radix micropower from different areas were different levels in the main ingredients.

CONCLUSIONDouble fingerprints of Isatidis Radix micropower is established. Each peak is optimally separated in chromatogram, which provides a scientific basis for quality control of Isatidis Radix micropower.

Amino Acids ; analysis ; Isatis ; chemistry ; Powders ; Quality Control

In this study, we analyzed the composition and content of 25 free amino acids in 32 batches of different forms of Cervi Cornu Pantotrichum(CCP; one-branched, two-branched, and three-branched) from 15 producing areas. The clustering analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) were performed based on the content of 25 free amino acids. Potential differential metabolites were identified based on VIP value. The results showed that there were 25 free amino acids in CCP, and the average content of essential, non-essential, and total amino acids was 6.13, 32.99, and 39.12 mg·g~(-1), respectively. The clustering analysis and OPLS-DA demonstrated that 25 free amino acids had different content among the three forms of CCP, of which two-branched CCP samples were separately gathered into a group. Five differential components, including glutamic acid, tryptophan, ornithine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and hydroxylysine, were screened out as potential quality markers for the identification of different forms of CCP. This study provides a theoretical basis for the quality evaluation, processing, and utilization of different forms of CCP.
Amino Acids/analysis* ; Animals ; Cornus ; Deer ; Gastropoda ; Glutamic Acid

OBJECTIVETo compare the agronomic characters, HPLC fingerprints, the content of main component and amino acid between erective and creepy Ophiopogon japonicus of Sichuan.

METHODAgronomic characters were measured by conventional methods; HPLC was applied on a C18 column with CH3OH-CH3CN-2% CH2COOH solution by gradient elution, quercetin was used as the internal standard reference, the contents of total saponins, flavone and polysaccharide were determined by UV spectrophotometry and amino acid was determined by automatic amino acid analyzer.

RESULTThere were extremely significant differences in the most agronomic characters between erective and creepy O. japonicus of Sichuan. The yield per plant was closely relevant to the roots number and the fresh weight of aerial part. The differences were not significant both in 69 common peaks and 23 uncommon peaks in HLPC fingerprints and the content of main component between erective and creepy O. japonicus.

CONCLUSIONThere is no obvious difference in chemistry component between the two types of O. japonicus. The yield per plant was closely relevant to the roots number and the fresh weight of aerial part. In cultivation it is appropriate to choose the creepy O. japonicus.

Amino Acids ; analysis ; Biomass ; China ; Flavones ; analysis ; Ophiopogon ; chemistry ; growth & development ; Plant Extracts ; analysis ; Polysaccharides ; analysis

OBJECTIVETo study the extraction, isolation and composition of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP).

METHODLBP was extracted from L. barbarum with water, isolationed and purified by DEAE ion-exchange cellulose and gel chromatography, and their structural composition was studied by means of SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis, GC, amino acid automatic analysis, etc.

RESULTPure LBP has four water solubie polysaccharides, M W was 1.524 x 10(5). LBP was composed of 6 kinds of monosaccharides (Ara, Rha, Xyl, Man, Gal and Glc), galacturonic acid and 18 kinds of amino acids.

CONCLUSIONLBP is a kind of complex polysaccharides consisting of acidic heteropolysaccharides and polypeptide or protein, and LBP has Glycan-O-Ser glycopeptide structures.

Amino Acids ; analysis ; Hexuronic Acids ; analysis ; Lycium ; chemistry ; Monosaccharides ; analysis ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Polysaccharides ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Seeds ; chemistry

Fresh roots of healthy four-year-old American ginseng were randomly divided into two groups and stored for 180 days in sand without washing (treatment A) and in plastic bag with preservative after washing (treatment B), and sampled after 45, 90, 135 and 180 days of storage, respectively. The incidence of disease was surveyed and the contents of ginsenoside, polysaccharide, and free amino acids of roots were determined. The results indicats that the disease of ginseng could be controlled better by the treatment B than by the treatment A within 45 days, but the better effect was achieved in the treatment A after storage for 45 days. Both storage methods had significant influence on the contents of ginsenoside, polysaccharide and free amino acids of roots. For the treatment A, the ginsenoside content of roots had remained relatively high during the storage period, and the crude polysaccharide and free amino acids changed slowly within 135 days and then increase significantly until 180 days. For the treatment B, the content of crude polysaccharide of roots decreased obviously after 90 days of storatge and then became stable until 135 days. The change of content of free amino acids was similar to the crude polysaccharide, but the decline was not significant. In general, the treatment A is more benefit to keep the quality of fresh roots of American Ginseng during 180 days of storage.
Amino Acids ; analysis ; Ginsenosides ; analysis ; Panax ; chemistry ; Plant Extracts ; analysis ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Technology, Pharmaceutical ; methods

May the structure information of protein be obtained from the corresponding nucleotide sequence? For this question, a computer program was used to conduct a statistical analysis about the clustering phenomena of amino acids. In this method, 20 kinds of amino acid were classified into 2 types according to the number of hydrogen bonds formed by middle base of their correlation codons. It can be seen that amino acid has a rather great possibility of neighboring on another of its class and this assembly has a tendency to forming specific secondary structure. A sequence was designed and its secondary structure was predicted by this prediction software.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Amino Acids ; chemistry ; classification ; Cluster Analysis ; Nucleotides ; chemistry ; genetics ; Protein Structure, Secondary ; genetics ; Sequence Analysis, Protein ; methods

Lipases are widely used enzymes in biotechnology. Although they catalyze the same reaction, their sequences vary. Therefore, it is highly desired to develop a fast and reliable method to identify the types of lipases according to their sequences, or even just to confirm whether they are lipases or not. By proposing two scales based pseudo amino acid composition approaches to extract the features of the sequences, a powerful predictor based on k-nearest neighbor was introduced to address the problems. The overall success rates thus obtained by the 10-fold cross-validation test were shown as below: for predicting lipases and nonlipase, the success rates were 92.8%, 91.4% and 91.3%, respectively. For lipase types, the success rates were 92.3%, 90.3% and 89.7%, respectively. Among them, the Z scales based pseudo amino acid composition was the best, T scales was the second. They outperformed significantly than 6 other frequently used sequence feature extraction methods. The high success rates yielded for such a stringent dataset indicate predicting the types of lipases is feasible and the different scales pseudo amino acid composition might be a useful tool for extracting the features of protein sequences, or at lease can play a complementary role to many of the other existing approaches.
Amino Acids ; analysis ; chemistry ; Computational Biology ; Lipase ; chemistry ; classification ; Models, Chemical ; Sequence Analysis, Protein ; methods

OBJECTIVETo explore the mechanism of postoperative fatigue syndrome(POFS) by detecting the change of central monoamine neurotransmitters in a rat model after major abdominal surgery.

METHODEighty-four rats were randomly divided into fatigue assessment groups (including model group and sham group) and experimental groups (including postoperative day 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 recovery groups and the corresponding control groups). Postoperative fatigue was evaluated after surgery. The brains were removed thereafter to detect the levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) in the hippocampus, midbrain, hypothalamus by high performance liquid chromatography. Serum free tryptophan (f-Trp) and branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) were measured.

RESULTSThe level of 5-HT increased to the highest at postoperative day 3, but reduced rapidly to the minimum at postoperative day 5, and then gradually recovered to the preoperative level. There was significant difference of 5-HT among experimental groups (P<0.05), also between the postoperative 24 hrs group and control groups (P<0.05). f-Trp and the ratio of f-Trp/BCAA increased in the early postoperative period, reduced to minimum at postoperative day 5. f-Trp was still lower compared to the control group at postoperative day 14, while the ratio of f-Trp/BCAA and BCAA restored to control level. Both of them were significantly different among experimental groups (P<0.05), also between the experimental groups and control groups (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONChanges of f-Trp, the ratio of f-Trp/BCAA, and central 5-HT may play an important role in the development of POFS.

Abdomen ; surgery ; Amino Acids ; analysis ; Animals ; Fatigue ; blood ; Postoperative Period ; Rats ; Serotonin ; analysis