Chemistry Faculty

Although the ergot alkaloids have been previously extracted from various plant materials and determined to be the causative agents of toxicity, more research is necessary to identify possible metabolites resulting from exposure to biological systems to elucidate biochemical pathways that may be involved in the aforementioned symptoms. There are two primary goals of this research: I) to develop a diagnostic tool by directly measuring the amount of ergot alkaloids present in forage animals after ingestion of endophyte-infected forage and II) to detect intact alkaloids or the presence of any metabolite present after biotransformation. The alkaloids and potential metabolites will serve as biomarkers for the detection of fescue toxicosis in the field. Once detected, animals could be treated (one current chemical treatment is domperidone) to reduce the potential for clinical toxicity. The screening of biological matrices is a favored approach because one would directly know what the animal has ingested and to what extent. In addition to a diagnostic tool, samples will be investigated to identify potential metabolites. Once metabolic processes affected by the ergot alkaloids have been identified and characterized, the development of specific target drugs and/or feeding regimens may be used to reduce incidences of severe tall fescue toxicosis and dramatically reduce the economic loss experienced by livestock producers. The investigations of ergot alkaloids with respect to tall fescue will be carried out with sample extractions and then subjected to further separation with reverse phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC). The LC eluent will be directly coupled to a tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) using electrospray ionization to convert molecules to the gas phase for mass analysis. Mass spectrometry is a powerful and sensitive analytical tool that can unambiguously identify a molecule with molecular weight information and fragmentation patterns that is not possible with absorption (UV-Vis) or emission (fluorescence) detection. The technique of LC-MS/MS has been well established and the use of this instrumentation for the presented problem is logical.

Dr. Smith is also interested in developing projects associated with the analysis of materials encountered in a forensic laboratory focusing on tandem mass spectrometry with chromatography inlets as well as ambient ionization sources. Improving existing methodologies or developing novel techniques in forensic laboratories is necessary to reduce cost, provide better accuracy, and quicken results.