Capillary zone electrophoresis for analysis of phytochelatins and other thiol peptides in complex biological samples derivatized with monobromobimane

A new method to improve the analysis of phytochelatins and their precursors (cysteine, gamma-Glu-Cys, and glutathione) derivatized with monobromobimane (mBrB) in complex biological samples by capillary zone electrophoresis is described. The effects of the background electrolyte pH, concentration, and different organic additives (acetonitrile, methanol, and trifluoroethanol) on the separation were studied to achieve optimum resolution and number of theoretical plates of the analyzed compounds in the electropherograms. Optimum separation of the thiol peptides was obtained with 150 mM phosphate buffer at pH 1.60. Separation efficiency was improved when 2.5% v/v methanol was added to the background electrolyte. The electrophoretic conditions were 13 kV and capillary dimensions with 30 cm length from the inlet to the detector (38 cm total length) and 50 microm inner diameter. The injection was by pressure at 50 mbar for 17 s. Under these conditions, the separation between desglycyl-peptides and phytochelatins was also achieved. We also describe the optimum conditions for the derivatization of biological samples with mBrB to increase electrophoretic sensitivity and number of theoretical plates. The improved method was shown to be simple, reproducible, selective, and accurate in measuring thiol peptides in complex biological samples, the detection limit being 2.5 microM glutathione at a wavelength of 390 nm.     

利用瞬间等速电泳的毛细管区带电泳大体积电动进样的研究

采用添加乙腈引发的场放大进样与瞬间等速电泳结合的预富集方法,实现了在毛细管内大体积高盐样品中阳离子的有效富集与分离。详细讨论了影响富集的缓冲体系、尾随离子种类、毛细管有效长度、进样时间和等速电泳时间等重要因素。选择在400 mmol/L LiAc-HAc缓冲液(pH 4.5)和400 mmol/L　β-丙氨酸-HAc尾随液(pH 4.5)及10 kV下样品和尾随溶液电动注入时间分别为270和90 s的条件下对高盐溶液中两种结构相近的药物普萘洛尔和美托洛尔进行了富集和分离。该方法富集倍数约为常规电动进样的280倍,普萘洛尔和美托洛尔的检出限分别为2×10-3和8×10-3 mg/L。     

Capillary electrophoresis of methyl-substituted phenols in acetonitrile

The separation of mono- and dimethylphenols by capillary electrophoresis in pure acetonitrile was investigated. In acetonitrile, uncharged phenols interact with background electrolyte anions forming negatively charged complexes, which can be separated from each other by capillary electrophoresis. The background electrolyte anions tested were acetate, bromide and chloride. The calculated formation constants for phenol–anion complexes were highest with acetate and smallest with bromide. Complex formation was found to be sensitive to traces of water in the background electrolyte. The separation of methylphenols was also carried out in acetonitrile at high pH using background electrolytes prepared from diprotic acids and tetrabutylammonium hydroxide. At high pH the phenols were partly dissociated, providing an additional mechanism for the separation. All methylphenols were separated with the use of malonate background electrolyte. However, this approach was prone to interference from methanol resulting from the tetrabutylammonium hydroxide solution.     

Determination of anthracycline antibiotics doxorubicin and daunorubicin by capillary electrophoresis with UV absorption detection.

Sweeping preconcentration and electrokinetic injection was used for the capillary electrophoretic analysis of trace amounts of biologically active anthracyclines with UV absorption detection. Phosphate buffer (100 mM), pH 2.5, with addition of 40% v/v methanol was used as background electrolyte (BGE). Sodium dodecyl sulfate (150 mM) was added to BGE in the inlet vial as the sweeping agent. The system enables effective separation of anthracyclines as well as cleanup from matrix impurities. Sweeping preconcentration of sample provides an excellent detection limit (1 x 10(-9) mol L(-1)). The method was applied for the determination of therapeutic levels of doxorubicin in real plasma samples.     

Determination of lignans in Schisandra chinensis using micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) has been developed as a promising method for the determination of lignans in plant samples. The separation conditions have been optimized with respect to the different parameters including sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and acetonitrile concentration, pH of the background electrolyte, separation voltage, and capillary temperature. The background electrolyte consisting of 40 mM SDS and 35% acetonitrile in 10 mM tetraborate buffer (pH 9.3) was found to be the most suitable electrolyte for this analysis. The applied voltage of 28 kV (positive polarity) and the capillary temperature 25 degrees C gave the best separation of lignans. The interday reproducibility of the peak areas and the migration times was below 2.0%. The results of MEKC analyses were compared with those obtained by capillary electrochromatography (CEC) and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The possibilities of using this method for the determination of lignans in drug and in serum samples were also tested.     

Enantiomeric separation of citalopram and its metabolites by capillary electrophoresis

A simple and fast capillary electrophoretic method has been developed for the enantioselective separation of citalopram and its main metabolites, namely N-desmethylcitalopram and N,N-didesmethylcitalopram, using beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) sulfate as the chiral selector. For method optimisation several parameters were investigated, such as CD and buffer concentration, buffer pH, and capillary temperature. Baseline enantioseparation of the racemic compounds was achieved in less than 6 min using a fused-silica capillary, filled with a background electrolyte consisting of a 35 mM phosphate buffer at pH 2.5 supplemented with 1% w/v beta-CD sulfate and 0.05% w/v beta-CD at 25 degrees C and applying a voltage of -20 kV. A fast separation method for citalopram was also optimized and applied to the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations. Racemic citalopram was resolved in its enantiomers in less than 1.5 min using short-end injection (8.5 cm, effective length) running the experiments in a background electrolyte composed of a 25 mM citrate buffer at pH 5.5 and 0.04% w/v beta-CD sulfate at a temperature of 10 degrees C.     

Separation and on-column preconcentration of some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs by microemulsion electrokinetic capillary chromatography using high-speed separations

Various strategies have been investigated for separating a group of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) by microemulsion electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEEKC) using high-speed separations. The parameters that of affect the separation, such as the nature of the oil droplet and the buffer, and the surfactant concentration have been studied. In addition, several organic solvents were used to decrease the retention of the analytes in the oil droplet phase and to improve the resolution of the NSAIDs. The optimum microemulsion background electrolyte (BGE) solution made of 0.8% w/w ethyl acetate, 6.6% w/w butan-1-ol, 6.0% w/w acetonitrile, 1.0% w/w sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and 85.6% w/w of 10 mM sodium tetraborate at pH 9.2 resolved the drugs within 8 min. The short-end injection procedure is an alternative for reducing the analysis time. When this procedure was used, the microemulsion BGE solution consisted of 0.8% w/w ethyl acetate, 6.6% w/w butan-1-ol, 17.0% w/w methanol, 1.0% w/w SDS, and 74.6% w/w of 10 mM sodium tetraborate, pH 9.2, and the NSAIDs were separated within 3 min. The reversed electrode polarity stacking mode (REPSM) technique was applied to the on-line concentration of the NSAIDs. In this technique, the sample matrix was pumped out of the capillary using a polarity-switching step. When this technique was applied, the sensitivity was enhanced up to 40-fold and the limits of detection (LODs) were in the low microg.L(-1) levels.     

Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis in coated capillaries: an interesting alternative for proteomic applications

This work brings together some contributions for the use of nonaqueous media for proteomic analysis, for both capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation and the preparation of tryptic digests. First, a ternary nonaqueous buffer consisting of 60/30/10 v/v methanol/acetonitrile/acetic acid with 12.5 mmol/L ammonium acetate was optimized for CE separation of the tryptic digest of lysozyme. Lysozyme was chosen as a model system for the protein digestion, which has also been prepared in an organic-rich medium with methanol/50 mmol/L NH(4)HCO(3), pH 8.0 (60/40 v/v). The separation results were compared to in silico (PeptideCutter program) digestion conditions, and high-efficiency peak separation (18 peaks) was obtained in 20 min with an electric field of 350 V/cm. In addition, we have evaluated the stability of a coated capillary with poly-N,N-dimethylacrylamide (60/30 cm total/effective length and 75 microm ID) for over 100 runs of tryptic digest with the nonaqueous background electrolyte solvent system. The migration times for ten selected peptide peaks presented 3-7% relative standard deviation.     

Separation of open-cage fullerenes using nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis

In this study, nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) was used to separate three open-cage fullerenes. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was used as the nonaqueous background electrolyte to change the analytes’ mobilities. The selectivity and separation efficiency were critically affected by the nature of the buffer system, the choice of organic solvent, and the concentrations of TFA and sodium acetate (NaOAc) in the background electrolyte. The optimized separation occurred using 200 mM TFA/20 mM NaOAc in MeOH/acetonitrile (10:90, v/v), providing highly efficient baseline separation of the open-cage fullerenes within 5 min. The migration time repeatability for the three analytes was less than 1% (relative standard deviation). Thus, NACE is a rapid, useful alternative to high-performance liquid chromatography for the separation of open-cage fullerenes.     

在线扫集-胶束毛细管电动色谱法测定复方氨酚烷胺胶囊中的3种有效成分

以在线扫集-胶束毛细管电动色谱法(Sweeping-MEKC)测定了复方氨酚烷胺胶囊中的马来酸氯苯那敏、咖啡因和对乙酰氨基酚3种有效成分。考察了缓冲溶液pH值、SDS浓度、分离电压及进样时间等对分离效果的影响。优化条件:以未涂层熔融石英毛细管(55 cm×50μm,有效柱长35 cm)为分离柱;环境温度25℃;80 mmol/L十二烷基磺酸钠+20 mmol/L NaH2PO4(pH 2.2)+15%乙腈为缓冲体系,分离电压-20kV,进样时间60 s(H=20.0 cm),测量波长210 nm。在该条件下氯苯那敏、咖啡因和对乙酰氨基酚在25min内出峰,峰面积RSD均小于4%;线性范围分别为2.45～39.17、1.61～25.76、1.58～25.28 mg/L;检出限(S/N=3)分别达139、34、24μg/L,回收率分别为96%～101%、98%～102%、96%～102%。     

Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis-electrospray- mass spectrometry for the analysis of fluoxetine and its related compounds

The potential of nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis was investigated for the simultaneous separation of fluoxetine hydrochloride, its meta-isomer, and other related compounds. The resolution of these compounds was compared in aqueous and nonaqueous media. Baseline separation of the studied solutes required a buffer electrolyte solution composed of 25 mM ammonium acetate and 1 M acetic acid in acetonitrile, an applied voltage of 30 kV and a temperature of 20 degrees C. Selectivity was considerably affected by the nature of the solvent (water, methanol, and acetonitrile). Moreover, substituting acetate by formate in the background electrolyte resulted in migration time changes, which were attributed to an ion-pairing phenomenon. Finally, the method was successfully coupled on-line with electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and allowed significant selectivity and sensitivity enhancement. The effect of ESI-MS parameters, such as nebulizing gas pressure, sheath liquid composition and flow rate, on resolution and method sensitivity was also discussed.     

Rapid and sensitive determination of phosphoamino acids in phosvitin by N-hydroxysuccinimidyl fluorescein-O-acetate derivatization and capillary zone electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection

A method was developed for the determination of phosphoamino acids by capillary zone electrophoresis-laser-induced fluorescence detection (argon ion laser, excitation at 488 nm and emission at 520 nm) using derivatization with N-hydroxysuccinimidyl fluorescein-O-acetate (SIFA). Different variables affecting the derivatization (SIFA concentration, derivatization pH, reaction temperature and reaction time) and the separation (type, pH and concentration of buffer, applied voltage and injection mode) were investigated in detail. The optimized separation conditions were 40 mM boric acid buffer (pH 9.2) for background electrolyte, 25 kV for the separation voltage, 25 degrees C for the capillary temperature and 5 s at 0.5 psi for the sample injection. Under the optimal conditions, the SIFA-labeled phosphoamino acids were fully separated within 7 min. The detection limits ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 nM, which are the lowest values reported for capillary electrophoresis (CE) methods. The proposed methodology allowed the rapid, sensitive and selective determination of phosphoamino acids in hen egg yolk phosvitin by the standard addition method. The recovery of these compounds in real sample was 94.0-103.5%. The developed method surpasses previously published CE methods in terms of detection limit, separation time, stability and simplicity of the electrophoretic procedure.     

大体积进样-乙腈盐堆积-胶束扫集毛细管电动色谱法对马来酸氯苯那敏的测定

建立了大体积进样-乙腈盐堆积-胶束扫集毛细管电动色谱法测定马来酸氯苯那敏片中马来酸氯苯那敏的新方法,并考察了样品中乙腈和NaCl浓度对分离效果的影响.结果表明,以12 mmol/L四硼酸钠-50 mmol/L硼酸- 50 mmol/L十二烷基硫酸钠(SDS)为缓冲液(含10%甲醇,pH9.1),以70%乙腈- 200m...     

On-line concentration by field-enhanced sample injection with reverse migrating micelles in micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography for the analysis of flavonoids in Epimedium brevicornum Maxim

A simple and sensitive micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) method was developed for the separation and determination of six flavonoids in Epimedium brevicornum Maxim. Field-enhanced sample injection with reverse migrating micelles (FESI-RMM) was used for on-line concentration of the flavonoids. An electrolyte containing 20 mM H3PO4, 100 mM SDS, 20% acetonitrile and 2% 2-propanol (pH 2.0) was chosen as the electrophoretic buffer. By optimizing the stacking conditions, about 40-360-fold improvement in the detection sensitivity was obtained for the flavonoids.     

Analysis of synthetic peptides by capillary electrophoresis: effect of organic solvent modifiers and variable electrical potentials on separation efficiencies

In this study, procedures based on volatile ammonium acetate buffer electrolytes of high pH value containing different organic solvent modifiers have been developed to achieve very high efficiency separations of histidine-containing synthetic peptides by high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) employing untreated fused silica capillaries. Different organic solvents, including acetonitrile, methanol and ethanol, at high volume fractions were used to modify the composition of the background buffer electrolyte. With the peptides investigated, it was found that methanol had the greatest effect in terms of enhancement of separation efficiency, as determined from the evaluation of theoretical plate numbers, N, of these HPCE systems. On the other hand, separation selectivities, e.g. the alpha(ij) values, did not change significantly as the volume fraction, psi, of the organic solvents was increased up to psi = 60% (v/v). Under these conditions, very rapid, e.g. 1-2 min, separation times could be still achieved. Compared to the effect of carrying out the separation of these peptides at constant voltage, a dramatic increase in the separation efficiency was also achieved by applying a linear voltage gradient during the HPCE experiment. Under optimal conditions of organic solvent composition and linear voltage gradient ramps, very high peak efficiencies for the studied set of synthetic peptides with N values of approximately 2-3 million theoretical plates per meter could be routinely obtained with fast analysis times. Moreover, these buffer electrolyte conditions are compatible with direct interfacing of the HPCE effluent to electrospray ionisation and ion trap mass spectrometers, thus expanding the analytical capabilities of these HPCE systems.     

Analysis of flavonoids by capillary zone electrophoresis with electrokinetic supercharging

On-line concentration via Electrokinetic Supercharging (EKS) was used to enhance the sensitivity of the capillary electrophoretic separation of the four flavonoids naringenin, hesperetin, naringin and hesperidin. Separation conditions, including the background electrolyte pH and concentration, the length and choice of terminator and the electrokinetic injection time were optimized. The optimum conditions were: a background electrolyte of 30 mM sodium tetraborate (pH 9.5) containing 5% (v/v) of methanol, electrokinetic injection of the sample (130 s, -10 kV) followed by hydrodynamic injecting of 100 mM 2-(cyclohexylamino)ethanesulfonic acid (CHES) (17 s, 0.5 psi) as terminator, and separation with -20 kV. Under these conditions the four flavonoids could be separated with a sample-to-sample time of 15 min and detection limits from 2.0 to 6.8 ng mL(-1). When compared to a conventional hydrodynamic injection the sensitivity was enhanced between 824 and 1515 times which is 7.6-16 times higher than other CE methods for the on-line concentration of flavonoids. The applicability of the developed method was demonstrated by the detection of the four flavonoids in an aqueous extract of Clematis hexapetala pall.     

胶束在线扫集毛细管电泳法测定三聚氰胺

研究胶束在线扫集毛细管电泳法测定三聚氰胺的可行性,结果表明,与区带毛细管电泳相比,胶束在线扫集毛细管电泳法富集倍数提高约60倍。缓冲体系为140 mmol/L SDS+20 mmol/L NaH2PO4(pH 2.20)+10%(体积分数)甲醇,分离电压-18 kV,进样时间30 s,测量波长214 nm。考察了SDS浓度、pH、进样时间、运行电压等因素对分离测定的影响情况。在优化条件下,三聚氰胺在9 min时出峰,峰面积RSD≤3.7%。方法检出限、线性范围、相关系数分别为:0.13μg/mL、0.50~32.0μg/mL、0.9997。方法可用于奶粉中三聚氰胺的分离测定。     

Separation of structurally related synthetic peptides by capillary zone electrophoresis

The separation of two different sets of synthetic peptides has been investigated by high-performance capillary zone electrophoresis utilising naked, fused silica capillaries. The effects of electrolyte pH, buffer concentration, capillary length and electric field strength on the separation efficiency and selectivity were systematically varied, with the highest resolution achieved with buffer electrolytes of low pH and relatively high ionic strength. Under optimised separation conditions utilising the "short end injection" separation approach with negative electric field polarity, a series of eight structurally-related synthetic peptides were baseline resolved within 4 min without addition of any modifier of the background electrolyte with separation efficiencies in the vicinity of 600000 theoretical plates/m. Further significant enhancement of separation efficiencies could be achieved by taking advantage of the "long end injection" approach with positive electric field polarity. The outcome of these experimental variations parallels the "sweeping" effect that has been observed in the capillary electrochromatographic and micellar electrokinetic separations of polar molecules and permits rapid resolution of peptides with focusing effects. In addition, small changes in the electrolyte buffer pH and concentration were found to have a significant impact on the selectivity of synthetic peptides of similar intrinsic charge. These observations indicate that multi-modal separation mechanisms operated under these conditions with the unmodified fused silica capillaries. This study, moreover, documents additional examples of peptide-specific multi-zoning behaviour in the high-performance capillary zone electrophoretic separation of synthetic peptides.     

Separation of alkylbenzyl quaternary ammonium compounds by capillary zone electrophoresis with sample stacking injection

Summary A systematic investigation of operational buffer systems, sample preparation and instrument parameters for achieving the best possible performance for determinating an homologous series of N-benzyl-N-alkyl-N,N-dimethylammonium chloride compounds by capillary zone electrophoresis with direct UV detection. The most effective separation was achieved within 3.5 min with the addition of acetonitrile (40%) in a phosphate buffer (20 mM pH 5.2) using a 40 cm fused-silica capillary operating at 25 KV and 20°C. Degassing of all electrolyte solutions and samples was very important. The linearity and repeatability for each compounds were satisfactory. To improve detection limits, on-column sample preconcentration, sample stacking, was investigated achieving a tenfold enrichment factor and quantitation limits about 10⁻⁷M.     

Trace analysis of zotepine and its active metabolite in plasma by capillary electrophoresis with solid phase extraction and head-column field-amplified sample stacking

A sensitive high-performance capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) with head-column field-amplified sample stacking (FASS) in binary system has been developed for the simultaneous determination of zotepine and its active metabolite, norzotepine, in human plasma. The separation of zotepine and norzotepine was performed using a background electrolyte consisting of 50% ethylene glycol-borate buffer (20mM, pH 8.0) solution with 20% methanol as the running buffer and on-column detection at 200 nm. Under the optimal FASS-CZE condition, good separation with high efficiency and short analysis time is achieved. Several parameters affecting the separation and sensitivity of the drug were studied, including sample matrix, pH and concentrations of the borate buffer, ethylene glycol and methanol. Using clozapine as an internal standard, the linear ranges of the method for the determination of zotepine and norzotepine in human plasma were over 3-100 ng/mL; the detection limits of zotepine and norzotepine in plasma were 2 and 1 ng/mL, respectively. A sample pretreatment by means of solid-phase extraction (SPE) with subsequent quantitation by FASS-CZE was used. The application of the proposed method for determination of zotepine and norzotepine in plasma collected after oral administration of 125 mg zotepine in one schizophrenic patient was demonstrated.