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Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples

Ricin is a protein toxin produced by the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) together with a related protein known as R. communis agglutinin (RCA120). Mass spectrometric (MS) assays have the capacity to unambiguously identify ricin and to detect ricin’s activity in samples with complex matrices. Th...

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Autores principales: Kalb, Suzanne R., Schieltz, David M., Becher, François, Astot, Crister, Fredriksson, Sten-Åke, Barr, John R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26610568
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins7124854
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author Kalb, Suzanne R.
Schieltz, David M.
Becher, François
Astot, Crister
Fredriksson, Sten-Åke
Barr, John R.
author_facet Kalb, Suzanne R.
Schieltz, David M.
Becher, François
Astot, Crister
Fredriksson, Sten-Åke
Barr, John R.
author_sort Kalb, Suzanne R.
collection PubMed
description Ricin is a protein toxin produced by the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) together with a related protein known as R. communis agglutinin (RCA120). Mass spectrometric (MS) assays have the capacity to unambiguously identify ricin and to detect ricin’s activity in samples with complex matrices. These qualitative and quantitative assays enable detection and differentiation of ricin from the less toxic RCA120 through determination of the amino acid sequence of the protein in question, and active ricin can be monitored by MS as the release of adenine from the depurination of a nucleic acid substrate. In this work, we describe the application of MS-based methods to detect, differentiate and quantify ricin and RCA120 in nine blinded samples supplied as part of the EQuATox proficiency test. Overall, MS-based assays successfully identified all samples containing ricin or RCA120 with the exception of the sample spiked with the lowest concentration (0.414 ng/mL). In fact, mass spectrometry was the most successful method for differentiation of ricin and RCA120 based on amino acid determination. Mass spectrometric methods were also successful at ranking the functional activities of the samples, successfully yielding semi-quantitative results. These results indicate that MS-based assays are excellent techniques to detect, differentiate, and quantify ricin and RCA120 in complex matrices.
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spelling pubmed-46901042015-12-30 Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples Kalb, Suzanne R. Schieltz, David M. Becher, François Astot, Crister Fredriksson, Sten-Åke Barr, John R. Toxins (Basel) Article Ricin is a protein toxin produced by the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) together with a related protein known as R. communis agglutinin (RCA120). Mass spectrometric (MS) assays have the capacity to unambiguously identify ricin and to detect ricin’s activity in samples with complex matrices. These qualitative and quantitative assays enable detection and differentiation of ricin from the less toxic RCA120 through determination of the amino acid sequence of the protein in question, and active ricin can be monitored by MS as the release of adenine from the depurination of a nucleic acid substrate. In this work, we describe the application of MS-based methods to detect, differentiate and quantify ricin and RCA120 in nine blinded samples supplied as part of the EQuATox proficiency test. Overall, MS-based assays successfully identified all samples containing ricin or RCA120 with the exception of the sample spiked with the lowest concentration (0.414 ng/mL). In fact, mass spectrometry was the most successful method for differentiation of ricin and RCA120 based on amino acid determination. Mass spectrometric methods were also successful at ranking the functional activities of the samples, successfully yielding semi-quantitative results. These results indicate that MS-based assays are excellent techniques to detect, differentiate, and quantify ricin and RCA120 in complex matrices. MDPI 2015-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4690104/ /pubmed/26610568 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins7124854 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kalb, Suzanne R.
Schieltz, David M.
Becher, François
Astot, Crister
Fredriksson, Sten-Åke
Barr, John R.
Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples
title Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples
title_full Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples
title_fullStr Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples
title_full_unstemmed Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples
title_short Recommended Mass Spectrometry-Based Strategies to Identify Ricin-Containing Samples
title_sort recommended mass spectrometry-based strategies to identify ricin-containing samples
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26610568
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins7124854
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