Ricerc@Sapienza

Metaproteomic analysis of aquifer systems provides valuable information on the microbial populations, their influence on drinking water quality, and the effect on human health. In the present paper, an extraction and enrichment method by C18 extra-wide pore cartridge was developed, optimized, and applied for the first time to the metaproteomic characterization of dissolved organic matter in groundwater samples. In particular, three elution procedures were tested and compared on water spiked with a yeast protein extract to maximize the recovery of proteins from a complex matrix.

Liquid chromatography coupled to low-resolution mass spectrometry (LRMS) has historically been a popular approach for compound quantitation. Recently, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) technical developments led to the introduction of new approaches for quantitative analysis. Whereas the performances of HRMS have been largely assessed for qualitative purposes, there are still questions about its suitability for quantitative analysis. Several papers on LRMS and HRMS comparison have been published; however, none of them was applied to polyphenol quantitation.

Liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry is the technique of choice for the untargeted profiling of food matrices. Despite the high potential of high-resolution mass spectrometry, when dealing with complex mixtures, an efficient separation technique is also needed. The novel core-shell chromatographic columns packed with sub-2 ?m sized particles are claimed to show very good resolution. However, the analytes retention can be significantly altered when working under ultra-high performance chromatographic conditions.

The aim of metabolic untargeted profiling is to detect and identify unknown compounds in a biological matrix to achieve the most comprehensive metabolic coverage. In phytochemical mixtures, however, the complexity of the sample could present significant difficulties in compound identification. In this case, the optimization of both the chromatographic and the mass-spectrometric conditions is supposed to be crucial for the detection and identification of the largest number of compounds.

Phytocannabinoids are a broad class of compounds uniquely synthesized by the various strains of Cannabis sativa. Up to date, most investigation on phytocannabinoids have been addressed to the most abundant species, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, for their well-known wide range of pharmaceutical activities. However, in the recent years a large number of minor constituents have been reported, whose role in cannabis pharmacological effects is of current scientific interest.