The gas phase structures of gold(I) complexes formed by intermolecular oxidation of selected terminal (phenylacetylene) and internal alkynes (2-butyne, 1-phenylpropyne, diphenylacetylene) were investigated using tandem mass spectrometry and ion spectroscopy in conjunction with quantum-chemical calculations. The experiments demonstrated that the primarily formed β-gold(I) vinyloxypyridinium complexes readily undergo rearrangement, dependent on their substituents, to either gold(I) α-oxo carbenenoids (a synthetic surrogate of the α-oxo carbenes) or pyridine adducts of gold(I) enone complexes in the condensed phase and that the existence of naked α-oxo carbenes is highly improbable. Isotopic labeling experiments performed with the reaction mixtures clearly linked the species that exist in solution to the ions transferred to the gas phase. The ions were then fully characterized by CID experiments and IRMPD spectroscopy. The conclusions based on the experimental observations perfectly correspond with the results from quantum-chemical calculations.

Natural product chemistry, microbiology, and food, human, and plant metabolomics represent a few sources of complex metabolomics data generated by mass spectrometry. Among the medley of software tools used to handle these data sets, no universal tool can qualitatively, quantitatively, or statistically address major biological questions or tasks. CycloBranch 2, an open and platform-free software, at least now provides the de novo generation of molecular formulas of unknown compounds in both liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and mass spectrometry imaging datafiles. For imaging files, this database-free approach was documented in the bimodal image fusion and characterization of three small molecules, including metallophores. The fine isotope ratio data filtering step distinguished 34S/13C2 and 41K/13C2 features. The standalone software package is implemented in C++ and can be downloaded from and used under GNU General Public License.

Background: Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous saprophytic airborne fungus responsible for more than one million deaths every year. The siderophores of A. fumigatus represent important virulence factors that contribute to the microbiome-metabolome dialog in a host. From a diagnostic point of view, the monitoring of Aspergillus secondary metabolites in urine of a host is promising due to the non-invasiveness, rapidity, sensitivity, and potential for standardization.Methods: Using a model of experimental aspergillosis in immunocompromised Lewis rats, the fungal siderophores ferricrocin (FC) and triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC) were monitored in rat urine before and after lung inoculation with A. fumigatus conidia. Molecular biomarkers in high-dose (HD) and low-dose (LD) infection models were separated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and were detected by mass spectrometry (MS). In the current work, we corroborated the in vivo MS infection kinetics data with micro-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (μPET/CT) kinetics utilizing 68Ga-labeled TAFC.Results: In the HD model, the initial FC signal reflecting aspergillosis appeared as early as 4 h post-infection. The results from seven biological replicates showed exponentially increasing metabolite profiles over time. In A. fumigatus, TAFC was found to be a less produced biomarker that exhibited a kinetic profile identical to that of FC. The amount of siderophores contributed by the inoculating conidia was negligible and undetectable in the HD and LD models, respectively. In the μPET/CT scans, the first detectable signal in HD model was recorded 48 h post-infection. Regarding the MS assay, among nine biological replicates in the LD model, three animals did not develop any infection, while one animal experienced an exponential increase of metabolites and died on day 6 post-infection. All remaining animals had constant or random FC levels and exhibited few or no symptoms to the experiment termination. In the LD model, the TAFC concentration was not statistically significant, while the μPET/CT scan was positive as early as 6 days post-infection.Conclusion: Siderophore detection in rat urine by MS represents an early and non-invasive tool for diagnosing aspergillosis caused by A. fumigatus. μPET/CT imaging further determines the infection location in vivo and allows the visualization of the infection progression over time.

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis results in 450,000 deaths per year and complicates cancer chemotherapy, transplantations and the treatment of other immunosuppressed patients. Using a rat model of experimental aspergillosis, the fungal siderophores ferricrocin and triacetylfusarinine C were identified as markers of aspergillosis and quantified in urine, serum and lung tissues. Biomarkers were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry using a 12T SolariX Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer. The limits of detection of the ferri-forms of triacetylfusarinine C and ferricrocin in the rat serum were 0.28 and 0.36 ng/mL, respectively. In the rat urine the respective limits of detection achieved 0.02 and 0.03 ng/mL. In the sera of infected animals, triacetylfusarinine C was not detected but ferricrocin concentration fluctuated in the 3–32 ng/mL range. Notably, the mean concentrations of triacetylfusarinine C and ferricrocin in the rat urine were 0.37 and 0.63 μg/mL, respectively. The MALDI FTICR mass spectrometry imaging illustrated the actual microbial ferricrocin distribution in the lung tissues and resolved the false-positive results obtained by the light microscopy and histological staining. Ferricrocin and triacetylfusarinine C detection in urine represents an innovative non-invasive indication of Aspergillus infection in a host.

A new reaction mechanism for the Lossen rearrangement of hydroxamic acids catalyzed by basic salts is presented. It is shown that the rearrangement proceeds in metal complexes of deprotonated hydroxamic acids. The deprotonation can occur either at the oxygen atom (observed for the zinc complexes) or at the nitrogen atom (observed for the potassium complexes). Both anionic forms are characterized by infrared multiphoton dissociation spectroscopy. The rearrangements proceed from the reactive N-deprotonated metal hydroxamates and lead to metal carbamates. The mechanism is elucidated by computational chemistry, mass-spectrometric studies, and preparative experiments.

A leading pharmacological strategy toward HIV cure requires “shock” or activation of HIV gene expression in latently infected cells with latency reversal agents (LRAs) followed by their subsequent clearance. In a screen for novel LRAs, we used fungal secondary metabolites as a source of bioactive molecules. Using orthogonal mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to latency reversal bioassays, we identified gliotoxin (GTX) as a novel LRA. GTX significantly induced HIV-1 gene expression in latent ex vivo infected primary cells and in CD4+ T cells from all aviremic HIV-1+ participants. RNA sequencing identified 7SK RNA, the scaffold of the positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) inhibitory 7SK small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) complex, to be significantly reduced upon GTX treatment of CD4+ T cells. GTX directly disrupted 7SK snRNP by targeting La-related protein 7 (LARP7), releasing active P-TEFb, which phosphorylated RNA polymerase II (Pol II) C-terminal domain (CTD), inducing HIV transcription.

In acutely ill patients, particularly in intensive care units or in mixed infections, time to a microbe-specific diagnosis is critical to a successful outcome of therapy. We report the application of evolving technologies involving mass spectrometry to diagnose and monitor a patient’s course. As proof of this concept, we studied five patients and used two rat models of mono-infection and coinfection. We report the noninvasive combined monitoring of Aspergillus fumigatus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. The invasive coinfection was detected by monitoring the fungal triacetylfusarinine C and ferricrocin siderophore levels and the bacterial metabolites pyoverdin E, pyochelin, and 2-heptyl-4-quinolone, studied in the urine, endotracheal aspirate, or breath condensate. The coinfection was monitored by mass spectrometry followed by isotopic data filtering. In the rat infection model, detection indicated 100-fold more siderophores in urine compared to sera, indicating the diagnostic potential of urine sampling. The tools utilized in our studies can now be examined in large clinical series, where we could expect the accuracy and speed of diagnosis to be competitive with conventional methods and provide advantages in unraveling the complexities of mixed infections.

Investigation of catalytic organometallic reactions often relies on mass spectrometry. Frequently, however, possible reaction intermediates along the catalytic cycle correspond to the same mass-to-charge ratio and have rather similar molecular composition. We have shown for the C−C coupling between phenylacetylene and pyridine catalyzed by the ruthenium complex [RuCp(PPh 3 )(Py) 2 ] + that using a combination of collision-induced dissociation experiments, infrared multiphoton dissociation spectroscopy, bimolecular reactions, and DFT calculations it is possible to study isobaric complexes and characterize the key intermediates in the reaction cycle. In addition, a so far elusive ruthenium complex with π-coordinated alkyne molecule has been spectroscopically characterized. ■ INTRODUCTIONThe modern atom-economical concept 1 minimizes the number of reaction steps and suppresses side products. One of the strategies fulfilling these requirements involves direct C−H activation reactions mediated by transition metals. 2 We will focus our attention on ruthenium catalysis here. 3 Ruthenium has been successfully used in direct functionalization of unsaturated heteroatom-containing compounds such as pyridine. Only a few other examples of transition metal catalyzed C−H activations of pyridine can be found in the literature, 4 but all of these examples have some limitations, such as elevated temperatures (>100°C) or a limited scope of use (internal alkynes). Recently, Johnson et al. 5 published a procedure for the coupling of pyridine with phenylacetylene mediated by ruthenium catalyst [RuCp(PPh 3 )(Py) 2 ]PF 6 . The reaction cycle is proposed to proceed through cationic intermediates (Scheme 1). It should be, therefore, possible to follow the proposed reaction cycle by mass spectrometry. Ionic intermediates can be transferred to the gas phase by means of electrospray ionization, and the individual intermediates can be probed in various dedicated experiments. 6 The disadvantage of the reaction cycle discussed here is that all the intermediates around the catalytic cycle have the same mass-to-charge ratio. This feature is common for many catalytic cycles and makes their investigations by mass spectrometry difficult. We would like to demonstrate for this challenging case that a combination of standard approaches of mass spectrometry, such as collisioninduced dissociation experiment, 7 with infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) spectroscopy 8 and theoretical calculations allows us to monitor the reaction intermediates, and we can distinguish between the isobaric complexes and identify the key intermediates along the catalytic cycle. ■ EXPERIMENTAL SECTIONThe reaction mixtures for ESI-MS experiments have been prepared according to the previously published synthetic procedures 5,9 with small modifications. Preparation of the solutions for experiments is detailed below.Mixture A. Freshly prepared catalyst [RuCp(PPh 3 )(Py) 2 ]PF 6 (2.0 mg, 2.7 mmol) was dissolved in dry degassed dichloromethane (0.5 mL) under an Ar atmosphere....