Simple and sensitive colorimetric detection of cysteine based on ssDNA-stabilized gold nanoparticles

In this paper, we demonstrate a simple and sensitive colorimetric detection of cysteine based on the cysteine-mediated color change of ssDNA-stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Cysteine is capable of absorbing onto AuNPs surfaces via the strong interaction between its thiol group and gold. ssDNA molecules which stabilize AuNPs against salt-induced aggregation are removed away by cysteine encapsulation on the AuNPs surfaces, resulting in a characteristic color change of AuNPs from red to blue as soon as salt is added. The ratio of absorptions at 640 to 525 nm (A ₆₄₀/A ₅₂₅) is linear dependent on the cysteine concentration in the range from 0.1 to 5 μM. Furthermore, amino acids other than cysteine cannot mediate the color change under the identical conditions due to the absence of thiol groups, suggesting the selectivity of the proposed method toward cysteine. The employment of complicated protocols and sophisticated processes such as the preparation of modified AuNPs are successfully avoided in design to realize the simple and low-cost cysteine detection; and the high sensitivity and low cost of the method is favorable for practical applications. Figure In the presence of cysteine, cysteine binds to the AuNPs surface via Au-S bond, spontaneously driving ssDNA molecules away from the nanoparticles, which leads to the AuNPs aggregation under the condition of NaCl introduction, and the corresponding color change from red to blue. However, the presence of other amino acids results in no color change due to the absence of thiol groups. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Fluorosurfactant-prepared triangular gold nanoparticles as postcolumn chemiluminescence reagents for high-performance liquid chromatography assay of low molecular weight aminothiols in biological fluids

Our recent study demonstrates the synthesized triangular gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by trisodium citrate reduction of HAuCl(4) in the presence of nonionic fluorosurfactant (FSN) could display stronger catalytic activity towards luminol-chemiluminescence (CL) than spherical AuNPs. Ultratrace aminothiols may cause a great decrease in CL intensity of the triangular AuNPs-luminol CL system. In this article, we utilize the as-prepared triangular AuNPs as novel postcolumn CL reagents to explore a simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-CL method for the determination of low molecular weight aminothiols (i.e., cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, cysteinylglycine and glutamylcysteine). The as-prepared triangular AuNPs were easier to synthesize, stable at a wider pH range and high ionic strength, and highly selective and sensitive towards reduced aminothiols. The detection limits at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 for cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, cysteinylglycine and glutamylcysteine were 0.016, 0.08, 0.1, 0.04 and 0.1pmol, respectively. Recoveries from spiked urine and plasma samples were 95.7-104.3%. The applicability of the proposed method has been validated by determining these low molecular weight aminothiols in human urine and plasma samples with satisfactory results, and thus it will have great potential application in clinical diagnosis.     

Determination of homocysteine thiolactone, reduced homocysteine, homocystine, homocysteine-cysteine mixed disulfide, cysteine and cystine in a reaction mixture by overimposed pressure/voltage capillary electrophoresis

An elevated level of thiol amino acid homocysteine is associated with several complex disorders. Homocysteine ability to bind proteins, thereby modulating their structure and function, is proposed to be one of the mechanisms of homocysteine induced pathogenecity. Homocysteine and homocysteine thiolactone bind to protein cysteine and lysine residues respectively. A major hurdle in studying protein homocysteinylation is the lack of suitable analytical techniques to determine simultaneously the concentrations of reduced and oxidized forms of homocysteine and cysteine (especially homocysteine-cysteine mixed disulfide) together with thiolactone formed during the reaction of homocysteine or thiolactone with proteins. Herein we report a capillary electrophoresis method to determine simultaneously the levels of these intermediates. For this 40 mmol/L Tris phosphate buffer at (pH 1.60) was used as running electrolyte, and the separation was performed by the simultaneous application of a CE voltage of 15 kV and an overimposed pressure of 0.1 psi. A rapid separation of these intermediates in less than 6 min with a good reproducibility of both peak areas (CV < 2%) and migration time (CV < 0.2%) was obtained. The applicability of our method was validated by incubating reduced homocysteine and albumin and measuring the reaction intermediates in the solution mixture.     

Determination of glutathione and cysteine in yeasts by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography followed by on‐line postcolumn derivatization

In the present study, we report a new method for the determination of two primary thiols, cysteine (CYS) and glutathione (GSH), by hydrophilic interaction LC. The polar analytes are separated isocratically using a mobile phase consisting of 65% acetonitrile/35% ammonium acetate (15 mmol/L, pH 2.0) and are detected at 285 nm following on‐line postcolumn derivatization by the thiol‐selective reagent methyl propiolate. The main figures of merit included linearity in the range of 5–200 μmol/L and an LOD 0.6 μmol/L for both compounds. The absence of matrix effect allowed the determination of CYS and GSH in various yeast samples. GSH was present in most of the samples at levels ranging between 0.9 and 3.1 mg/g, whereas CYS was determined in only one sample at a significantly lower concentration. In terms of accuracy, the percent recoveries ranged between 91.2 and 105.6% for GSH, and 91.6 and 106.9% for CYS.     

Simultaneous Determination of Tin,Nickel, Lead,Cadmium and Mercury in Tobacco and Tobacco Additives by Microwave Digestion and RP‐HPLC Followed by On‐Line Column Enrichment

A new method for the simultaneous determination of five heavy metal ions, tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury ions as metal‐tetra‐(2‐aminophenyl)‐porphyrin (T₂APP) chelates was developed using reversed‐phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP‐HPLC) equipped with a photodiode array detector and combined with an on‐line enrichment technique. The tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury ions were pre‐column derivatized with T₂APP to form color chelates. The Sn‐T₂APP, Ni‐T₂APP, Hg‐T₂APP, Cd‐T₂‐APP and Pb‐T₂APP chelates can be absorbed onto the front of the enrichment column when they are injected into the injector and sent to the enrichment column [Waters Xterra? RP₁₈(5μ, 3.9 × 20 mm)] with a buffer solution of 0.05 mol/L pyrrolidine‐acetic acid (pH = 10.0) as mobile phase. After the enrichment had finished, by switching the six‐port switching valves, the retained chelates were back‐flushed by mobile phase and traveling towards the analytical column. These chelates separation on the analytical column [Waters Xterra? RP₁₈ (5μ, 3.9 × 150 mm)] was satisfactory by gradient elution with methanol (containing 0.05 mol/L pyrrolidine‐acetic acid buffer salt, pH = 10.0) and acetone (containing 0.05 mol/L pyrrolidine‐acetic acid buffer salt, pH = 10.0) as mobile phase. The linearity range is 0.01?120 μg/L for each metal ion. The detection limits (S/N = 3) of tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury are 4.0 ng/L, 3.5 ng/L, 2.5 ng/L, 3.0 ng/L and 3.0 ng/L, respectively. This method was applied to the determination of tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury ions in tobacco and tobacco additives with good results.     

Simultaneous determination of total homocysteine, cysteine and methionine in hypothyroid patients’ plasma by liquid chromatography using platinum/poly(methyl violet) modified electrode

The fabrication and application of a novel electrochemical detection (ED) system with the platinum/poly(methyl violet) (Pt/MV) chemically modified electrode (CME) for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were described. The Pt particles deposited on the poly-MV film were characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM). It was found that the Pt/MV CME exhibited efficiently electrocatalytic effect on the current responses of cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy) and methionine (Met) with relatively high sensitivity, stability and long-life of activity. In HPLC-ED, these three amino acids had good and stable current responses at the CME and their linear ranges were over three orders of magnitude (R ≥ 0.9996) with the detection limits being 7.5 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ for Cys, 1.0 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ for Hcy, 5.0 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ for Met. The application of this method coupled with microdialysis sampling for the determination of Cys, Hcy and Met in plasma from patients with hypothyroidism was satisfactory.     

Determination of rimantadine in human urine by HPLC using a monolithic stationary phase and on‐line post‐column derivatization

In the present study, we propose the first HPLC method coupled to postcolumn derivatization for the determination of rimantadine in human urine samples. The analyte and amantadine (internal standard) were isocratically separated using an RP monolithic stationary phase (100 × 4.6 mm id) with a mobile phase consisting of CH₃OH/phosphate buffer (25 mmol/L, pH 3.0) at a volume ratio of 50:50. Postcolumn derivatization involved on‐line reaction with o‐phthalaldehyde (20 mmol/L) and N‐acetyl‐cysteine (5 mmol/L) at alkaline medium (100 mmol/L borate pH 11.0). Spectrofluorimetric detection at λ_ex/λ_em = 340/455 nm enabled the selective and sensitive determination of rimantadine in urine samples at a range of 50–500 ng/mL with an LOD of 5 ng/mL. Human urine samples were analyzed successfully after SPE using hydrophilic‐lipophilic balanced RP cartridges (30 mg/mL, Oasis HLB). Recoveries ranged between 89.7 and 102.7%.     

Simultaneous determination of total homocysteine,cysteine, glutathione,and N‐acetylcysteine in brain homogenates by HPLC

We have developed a simple, fast, accurate, and cheap method for the simultaneous determination of total cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, and N‐acetylcysteine in brain homogenates based on the reduction of disulfide bonds by tris(2‐carboxyethyl) phosphine, pre‐column derivatization of free thiol groups with 2‐chloro‐1‐methylquinolinium tetrafluoroborate followed by ion‐pair reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography separation with ultraviolet detection. The separation of thiol derivatives was achieved in 10 min. Linearity was observed in the range of 10–300, 0.7–10, 2–30, and 3–20 μmol/L homogenate with a limit of detection of 3.7, 0.2, 0.8, and 1.2 μmol/L homogenate for cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, and N‐acetylcysteine, respectively. The precision, calculated as relative standard deviation, was in the range of 1.21–4.77, 1.53–14.35, 0.47–1.92, and 1.61–8.95% for cysteine, homocysteine, glutathione, and N‐acetylcysteine, respectively. The presented method was successfully applied to the selective determination of total amino thiols in pig brain tissue samples.     

Improved cleanup method for the multiresidue analysis of N-methylcarbamates in grains,fruits and vegetables by means of HPLC with postcolumn reaction and fluorescence detection

Summary An improved and quick cleanup method has been developed for the liquid chromatographic determination of 21 N-methylcarbamate pesticides and 10 of their metabolites in grains, fruits and vegetables. Various types of solid phase extraction columns have been tested for the cleanup step in order to replace the time-consuming cleanup method found in the literature. Aminopropyl-bonded silica columns proved to be superior to unbonded silica or octyl, octadecyl, cyanopropyl and diol-bonded silica. For all 16 types of matrices tested, a single column cleanup step appeared to be satisfactory. The final determination was performed by separation of the N-methylcarbamates via high-performance liquid chromatography followed by postcolumn reaction, fluorogenic labelling of the hydrolytically formed methylamine with the orthophthalaldehyde/2-mercaptoethanol reagent, and fluorescence detection. Recovery data for 256 carbamate/commodity combinations will be given. The results of the routine analysis of real samples will also be presented. Finally, possibilities for confirming positive samples by an independent, second method will be discussed.     

Simple and rapid determination of N6‐(Δ2‐isopentenyl)adenine,zeatin, and dihydrozeatin in plants using on‐line cleanup liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid quadrupole‐Orbitrap high‐resolution mass spectrometry

A simple and rapid method was developed for the determination of three free cytokinins, namely, N⁶‐(Δ²‐isopentenyl)adenine, zeatin, and dihydrozeatin, in plants using TurboFlow on‐line cleanup liquid chromatography combined with hybrid quadrupole‐Orbitrap high‐resolution mass spectrometry. The samples were extracted using acetonitrile, and then the extract was purified on a C₁₈‐p column, in which the sample matrix was removed and the analytes were retained. Subsequently, the analytes were eluted from the extraction column onto the analytical column (Hypersil Gold C₁₈ column) prior to chromatographic separation and hybrid Q‐Orbitrap detection using the targeted‐MS² scan mode. The linearity was satisfactory with a correlation coefficient of >0.999 at concentrations ranging from 5–5000 pg/mL. The limits of quantification for the analytes ranged from 4.2–5.2 pg/mL. The intra‐ and inter‐day average recoveries of analytes fortified at three levels ranged from 85.4–108.2%, and the intra‐ and inter‐day relative standard deviations ranged from 4.04–8.57%. The method was successfully applied for the determination of free cytokinins in different tissue samples of Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana.     

Novel,highly selective detection of Cr(III) in aqueous solution based on a gold nanoparticles colorimetric assay and its application for determining Cr(VI)

A simple, rapid, sensitive and field-portable colorimetric technique for the determination of Cr(III) in aqueous solution based on an aggregation-induced color transition of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been developed. AuNPs were first functionalized with a dithiocarbamate-modified N-benzyl-4-(pyridin-4-ylmethyl)aniline ligand (BP-DTC). Chelation of Cr(III) by several of these ligands, bound to different nanoparticles, led to nanoparticle aggregation in solution. This gave rise to a color change from wine-red to blue that was discernible by the naked eye and an easily measurable alteration in the extinction spectrum of the particles. The method could be used to determine Cr(III) with a detection limit of 31 ppb. Furthermore, selective detection of trace Cr(III) in aqueous solution in the presence of 12 other transition metal ions has been achieved. Toward the goal of practical applications, the sensor has been further evaluated with a view to monitoring Cr(III) in nutritional supplements and the blood of diabetes patients and also applied in the indirect determination of Cr(VI) in waste water.     

Determination of Se(IV) in On‐Line System by Cathodic Stripping Voltammetry

A sensitive and selective on‐line voltammetric procedure for determination of traces of Se(IV) is presented. The pulsed potential accumulation was proposed for minimization of interferences of surface active substances and foreign ions. The calibration plot was linear from 1×10^?9 mol L^?1 to 4×10^?8 mol L^?1 for accumulation time of 180 s. The relative standard deviation was 6.1% (n=5) for a Se(IV) concentration of 1×10^?8 mol L^?1. The detection limit estimated from (3 σ) for an accumulation time of 180 s was about 4×10^?10 mol L^?1. The validation of the procedure proposed was made by a recovery tests for tap and river water samples.     

Simultaneous determination of homocysteine,methionine and cysteine in maternal plasma after delivery by HPLC‐fluorescence detection with DBD‐F as a label

An HPLC‐fluorescence (FL) method for determination of sulfur‐containing amino acids such as homocysteine (Hcy), methionine (Met) and cysteine (Cys) in human plasma was developed. The sulfur‐containing amino acids were labeled with 4‐(N,N‐dimethylaminosulfonyl)‐7‐fluoro‐2,1,3‐benzoxadiazole (DBD‐F). Calibration curves in the range of 1–100 µm (Hcy and Met) and 5–500 µm (Cys) indicated good linearities (r ≥ 0.998). The limits of detection at a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 3 were 0.13 (Hcy), 0.02 (Met) and 0.11 µm (Cys), respectively. Acceptable results for accuracy and precision of intra‐ and inter‐day measurements were obtained. The results of Hcy and Cys obtained by the proposed method indicated good correlations with the conventional method (r > 0.911, n = 20). Furthermore, the method was applied to determination of the sulfur‐containing amino acids in maternal plasma (n = 200) after delivery. The concentrations of Hcy, Met and Cys as a median (inter quartile range, Q₁ and Q₃) were 5.37 (3.32–7.79) μm , 25.20 (20.10–31.06) μm and 147.25 (102.81–189.31) μm , respectively. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Efficiency of a Microcolumn of Rice Bran for On‐line Trace Enrichment in FI‐AAS,a Highly Selective System for On‐line Preconcentration and Determination of Copper

A flow injection flame atomic absorption spectrometry system incorporating a microcolumn of rice bran was designed, and its capability for on‐line trace enrichment of copper, cadmium and lead was studied. Analytes were deposited on the microcolumn by processing a standard or solution of analytes on the column. Injection of 250 μL of nitric acid (1 mol/L) then served to elute the retained species to FAAS. The procedure was successfully applied for determination of copper in tap water, well water and multivitamin tablets. The accuracy was assessed through recovery experiments and independent analysis by furnace‐AAS. A sample volume of 20 mL of copper resulted in a preconcentration factor of 96; precision value at the 20 μg/L was 4.1%.     

Determination of chloride in biological fluids as pentafluorobenzylchloride by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and UV detection

Summary A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of chloride in plasma, urine, saliva, sweat and aqueous solution is described. Chloride, in solution in aqueous acetone, is converted by means of pentafluorobenzyl bromide into pentafluorobenzyl chloride. This derivative is separated on a ODS-5 m reversed-phase column using isocratic elution with acctonitrile/water, 50/50, v/v, at a flow rate of 2.0 ml/min, and detected by a UV detector at 264 nm. The method is rapid, accurate and sufficiently sensitive for the determination of chloride in less than 10 l sample volume of a biological fluid.     

Analysis of 3‐methoxypterostilbene in biological fluids by high‐performance liquid chromatography: application to pre‐clinical pharmacokinetics

A method of analysis for 3‐methoxypterostilbene [trans‐3,3′5‐trimethoxy‐4′hydroxystilbene] in biological fluids is necessary to study pharmacokinetics. A novel and simple high‐performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of 3‐methoxypterostilbene in rat serum and urine. The internal standard, pinosylvin, was added to 0.1 mL serum or urine (serum proteins were precipitated with cold acetonitrile at ?20°C). Separation was achieved with a Phenomenex® C₁₈ (2) (5 µm, 250 × 4.60 mm) column with ultraviolet detection at 327 nm. The calibration curves in both matrices were linear ranging from 0.05 to 100 µg/mL, and the mean extraction efficiency was >99%. Precision of the assay for both matrices was <12% (RSD) and was within 13% for all points on the calibration curve. The limit of quantification for this method was 0.05 µg/mL. The assay was successfully applied to a preliminary study of 3‐methoxypterostilbene pharmacokinetics in a rat. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A validated HPLC‐fluorescence method with a semi‐micro column for routine determination of homocysteine,cysteine and cysteamine,and the relation between the thiol derivatives in normal human plasma

A semi‐micro column HPLC‐fluorescence method for routine determination of thiol derivatives such as homocysteine (Hcy), cysteine (Cys) and cysteamine (CA) is described. The thiol derivatives labeled with ammonium‐7‐fluorobenzo‐2‐oxa‐1,3‐diazole‐4‐sulfonate (SBD‐F) were isocratically separated within 12 min on a semi‐micro ODS column (Daisopak‐SP‐120‐5‐ODS‐BP) with a mixture of 25 mm acetate buffer (pH 2.00) and CH₃CN as a mobile phase. The purity and similarity of SBD‐thiols by a multi‐wavelength fluorescence detector were more than 92.3 and 96.7%. The detection limits of Hcy, Cys and CA at a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 3 were 0.16, 0.47 and 0.03 µm , respectively. Furthermore validation parameters such as accuracy, precision and robustness of the proposed method showed satisfactory results. Almost 850 plasma sample injections (range 572–1076, n = 3) for a column could be performed without differences in retention time and peak heights of labels. As an application of the proposed method, the determination of thiol derivatives in normal human plasma (n = 103) was demonstrated. The correlation coefficients between Hcy vs Cys and Hcy vs CA were 0.38 and −0.35, respectively. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simultaneous Determination of Palladium and Platinum by On‐Line Enrichment Followed by Rapid Column High Performance Liquid Chromatography

In this paper, a new method for the simultaneous determination of palladium and platinum ions was developed using a rapid column high performance liquid chromatograph equipped with an on‐line enrichment technique. The palladium and platinum ions were pre‐column derivatized with 5‐(p‐aminobenzylidene)‐thiorhodanine (ABTR) to form colored chelates. The Pd‐ABTR, Pt‐ABTR chelates can be absorbed onto the front of an enrichment column when they were injected into the injector and sent to the enrichment column [ZORBAX Stable Bound, 4.6 × 10 mm, 1.8 μm] with a buffer solution of 0.05 mol/L sodium acetate‐acetic acid buffer solution (pH 3.5) as mobile phase. After the enrichment had finished, by switching the six‐ports switching valve, the retained chelates were back‐flushed by mobile phase and traveled towards the analytical column. These chelates separation on the analytical column [ZORBAX Stable Bound, 4.6 × 50 mm, 1.8 μm] was satisfactory with 65% methanol (containing 0.05 mol/L of pH 3.5 sodium acetate‐acetic acid buffer salt and 0.01 mol/L of tritonX‐100) as mobile phase. The palladium and platinum were separated completely within 2 min. The detection limits (S/N = 3) of palladium and platinum are 1.4 ng/L and 1.6 ng/L, respectively. This method was applied to the determination of palladium and platinum in water and urine samples with good results.     

On‐line preconcentration and determination of six sulfonylurea herbicides in cereals by MEKC with large‐volume sample stacking and polarity switching

A new MEKC method with large‐volume sample stacking and polarity switching was developed for on‐line preconcentration and detection of sulfonylurea herbicide (SUH) residues in cereals, including nicosulfuron (NS), thifensulfuon (methyl) (TFM), tribenuron‐methly (TBM), sulfometuron‐methyl (SMM), pyrazosulfuron‐ethyl (PSE), and chlorimuron‐ethyl (CME). In order to achieve a high resolution and enrichment factor, several parameters were optimized, such as the pH of the running buffer, the concentration of the BGE and the SDS, the separate voltage, the sample size, the pH, and the electrolyte concentration of the sample. The optimal running buffer was composed of 30 mM borate and 80 mM SDS at pH 7.0. The borate concentration in the sample was 30 mM and the pH value of the sample was the same as that of the running buffer. The concentrating voltage and the separating voltage were –15 kV and 15 kV, respectively. The sample size was 1.455 kPa × 780 s (33.11 cm). Under the optimum conditions, for NS, TFM, TBM, SMM, PSE, and CME, the enrichment factors were 613, 642, 835, 570, 709, and 599; the LODs were 0.29–0.50 ng/g, 0.22–0.36 ng/g, 0.60–0.89 ng/g, 0.39–0.72 ng/g, 0.28–0.56 ng/g, and 0.31–0.57 ng/g; the LOQs of six SUHs were all 5 ng/g; the average recoveries of the spiked sample were 86.68–92.99%, 80.73–93.65%, 81.49–94.40%, 82.97–95.1%, 82.96–98.84%, and 80.41–92.94%, respectively.     

Simultaneous Determination of Paracetamol and Orphenadrine Citrate in Dosage Formulations and in Human Serum by RP‐HPLC

Rapid liquid chromatographic procedures are proposed for analysis of paracetamol and orphenadrine citrate in pharmaceutical preparations and human serum using acetonitrile: water (50:50) as a mobile phase, adjusting pH to 2.6, UV detection at 215 nm and propylparaben sodium as internal standard. The advantages of this method include good and rapid separation, well resolved peaks, and only a small amount of sample is required for assay and adequate precision. The method showed good linearity in the range of 6 to 10000 ng/mL for paracetamol serum concentrations with a correlation coefficient 0.9999 (inter and intra day CV < 3.15) and in the range 3–10000 ng/mL for orphenadrine citrate serum concentrations with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999 (inter and intra day CV < 3.58). The recovery of paracetamol and orphenadrine citrate was > 96.9% and > 96.7%, respectively. The proposed method may be used for the quantitative analysis of paracetamol and orphenadrine citrate alone or in combination from raw materials, in bulk drugs, dosage formulations and in serum.