Investigation of cell culture media infected with viruses by pyrolysis mass spectrometry: Implications for bioaerosol detection

Abstract

Mass spectrometry coupled with a pyrolysis inlet system was used to investigate media from cell cultures infected with viruses. Cell culture media is an intricate mixture of numerous chemical constituents and cells that collectively produce complicated mass spectra. Cholesterol and free fatty acids were identified and attributed to lipid sources in the media (blood serum supplement and plasma membranes of host cells). These lipid moieties could be utilized as signature markers for rapidly detecting the cell culture media. Viruses are intracellular parasites and are dependent upon host cells in order to exist. Therefore, it is highly probable that significant quantities of media needed to grow and maintain viable host cells would be present if a viral agent were disseminated as an aerosol into the environment. Cholesterol was also detected from a purified virus sample, further substantiating its use as a target compound for detection. Implications of this research for detection of viral bioaerosols, using a field-portable pyrolysis mass spectrometer, is described.

Study of purified bacteria and viruses by pyrolysis mass spectrometry

“…These include the molecular ions and/or their fragments of iC14:0 ME, C14:0 ME, aC15:0 ME, C16:1 ME, C16:1 ME and other higher carbon FAMEs; see Table 3. Moreover, we also observed the ions corresponding to the methylated cholesterol (molecular weight of cholesterol is 386 Daltons) and its fragments at m/z 400, 386, 368, 353, 339, 326, 301, 255, 231, 213, 199 14,18 from QII and yellow fever 17-D. The QI and QII have different lipid profiles, shown in Figures 6(a) and 6(b).…”

“…Based on our current understanding of the biochemical composition of bacteria and viruses, we can expect the presence of certain marker compound signals, such as cholesterol from lipid bilayers of enveloped viruses 3,14 and dipicolinic acid (DPA) from Bacillus spores. 2,7 Thus, we can also anticipate the absence of cholesterol from naked viruses and bacteria.…”

A validation framework for microbial forensic methods based on statistical pattern recognition

“…In the pattern recognition approach, it is assumed that the signature associated with, say, a particular growth medium is contained in a set of measurements of individual characteristics of the agent sample such as elemental concentrations 3 , isotope ratios 4 , or the amplitude of peaks corresponding to particular mass fragment sizes 5 . This set of (usually quantitative) characteristics is termed the pattern vector in the literature on pattern recognition 6 .…”

“…Mass spectrometric methods that determine elemental 3 , isotopic 4 , or biomolecular 5 composition of an agent were suggested for this application. A key feature in each type of analytical scheme is the use of multivariable data sets (i.e.…”

Miniature Sensors for Biological Warfare Agents using Fatty Acid Profiles: LDRD 10775 Final Report

“…To harvest viral agents the host cells are ruptured, and it is at this stage that purification occurs. It has been shown that lipids from growth media, including cholesterol, dominate the high-mass range of the pyrolysis mass spectra of both purified and unpurified viral preparations [31]. Because cholesterol is not generally found in bacterial culture media, it can be thought of as a biomarker for the presence of viral aerosols.…”