Fast quantification of amino acids by microchip electrophoresis–mass spectrometry

A fast microchip electrophoresis–nano-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometric method (MCE-nanoESI-MS) was developed for analysis of amino acids in biological samples. A glass/poly(dimethylsiloxane) hybrid microchip with a monolithic nanoESI emitter was used in the platform. The proposed MCE-nanoESI-MS analytical method showed high separation efficiency for amino acids. Baseline separation of an amino acid mixture containing Lys, Arg, Val, Tyr, and Glu was completed within 120 s with theoretical plate numbers of >7,500. The method was applied to study cellular release of excitatory amino acids (i.e., aspartic acid (Asp) and glutamic acid (Glu)) under chemical stimulations. Linear calibration curves were obtained for both Asp and Glu in a concentration range from 1.00 to 150.0 μM. Limits of detection were found to be 0.37 μM for Asp and 0.33 μM for Glu (S/N?=?3). Assay repeatability (relative standard deviation, n?=?6) was 4.2 and 4.5 %, for Asp and Glu at 5.0 μM, respectively. In the study of cellular release, PC-12 nerve cells were incubated with alcohol at various concentrations for 1 h. Both extra- and intracellular levels of Asp and Glu were measured by the proposed method. The results clearly indicated that ethanol promoted the release of both Asp and Glu from the cells.     

Determination of amino acids in selenium-enriched yeast by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry after microwave assisted hydrolysis

A simple, rapid microwave digestion procedure for protein hydrolysis preceding the determination of amino acids in yeast using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) is described. Protein hydrolysis was performed in a focused microwave using 4 M methanesulfonic acid (MAS). Amino acids were derivatized with methyl chlorofomate (MCF) and extracted into chloroform prior to GC–MS analysis. The microwave parameters, including power, temperature and heating time, were optimized. It was found that temperature and heating time were the most influential factors. A total of 17 amino acids were determined in selenium-enriched yeast with use of standard addition calibration. Limits of detection and quantitation (LODs/LOQs) of the amino acids measured were in the sub-nmol range, suitable for monitoring of amino acids in yeast and other food products.     

MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry–multivariate data analysis as a tool for classification of reactivation and non-culturable states of bacteria

Some bacterial life states are only difficult to describe and to detect because they are on the border of active metabolism. A prominent example is the so-called viable but non-culturable state, which is mainly characterized by the inability of bacteria to grow on synthetic media. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF/MS) in combination with multivariate data analysis represents a powerful tool for mass-spectrometric pattern recognition of biological samples. This method is already used for differentiation of bacterial strains. In this study we present a rapid readout method based on MALDI-ToF/MS in combination with principal component analysis to classify the bacterial non-culturable state using Enterococcus faecalis as a model organism. By applying this technique to samples of different physiological states, distinct clusters were calculated and all mass spectra were classified correctly into groups of similar type concerning their physiological state.     

Metabolomic analysis of amino acids and organic acids in aging mouse eyes using gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

This is a metabolomics study for monitoring altered amino acid (AA) and organic acid (OA) metabolism of in eyes from aging an mouse model at 8 and 18 weeks and 18 months. Simultaneous metabolic profiling analysis of OAs and AAs was performed as ethoxycarbonyl/methoxime/tert-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives by gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 42 metabolites—24 AAs and 18 OAs—were determined and their composition values were normalized to the corresponding mean values of 8-week-old mice as the control group. Then their normalized values were plotted as star graphs, which were distorted and readily distinguishable for each age-related group. Among the 42 metabolites, 18 AAs and 11 OAs were age dependent and significantly different (p < 0.05). Principal component analysis and partial least squares discriminant analysis showed unclear separation between 8- and 18-week-old mice but clear separation between these and 18-month-old mice. In particular, the variable importance in projection scores of 4-hydroxyproline, cis-aconitic acid, glycine, isocitric acid, leucine, pipecolic acid and lysine from partial least-squares–discriminant analysis were higher than 1.3. A heatmap for the classification and visualization of 42 metabolites showed differences in metabolite changes with aging. Altered AA and OA profiles were monitored, which may explain the metabolic disturbance of AA and OA. These findings are related to mitochondrial dysfunctions related to energy metabolism and the impaired antioxidant system in the aging eye. Therefore, the present metabolomics results of the association between physiological states and altered metabolism of AA and OA will be useful for understanding the aging eye and related diseases.     

Trace analysis of free and combined amino acids in atmospheric aerosols by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

The analysis of amino acids by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS) after their derivatization with N-(t-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide was investigated as an alternative approach for the determination of free (FAA) and combined amino acids (CAA) in aerosols. This technique showed excellent linearity with r² values ranging from 0.9029 to 0.9995 and instrumental limits of detection ranging from 0.3 to 46 pg for the different amino acids. The quality of water used for sample extraction was found to be of utmost importance for achieving low blank levels of FAA and CAA. The addition of isopropanol during the extraction of aerosols was also shown to minimize the coextraction of inorganic salts that interfered with the analysis of FAA, Moreover, the ascorbic acid was found to be the most effective reagent for preventing the oxidative destruction of CAA during the hydrolysis process. By the analysis of spiked aerosol samples, the average recoveries determined for FAA and CAA were higher than 60% and the associated relative standard deviation was lower than 10% for the majority of amino acids. The application of the adopted method in background aerosols of the eastern Mediterranean enabled the unambiguous identification and quantification of 20 amino acids. The total concentration of FAA and CAA in aerosols ranged from 13 to 34 ng m⁻³ and from 29 to 79 ng m⁻³, respectively. The GC–MS based method is proposed to overcome several analytical difficulties usually encountered with the conventional HPLC-fluoresence technique.     

Enantiomeric resolution of biomarkers in space analysis: Chemical derivatization and signal processing for gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of chiral amino acids

The work compares two GC–MS methods for enantioselective separation of amino acids as suitable candidate for stereochemical analysis of chiral amino acids on board spacecrafts in space exploration missions of solar system body environments. Different derivatization reagents are used: a mixture of alkyl chloroformate–alcohol–pyridine to obtain the alkyl alkoxy carbonyl esters and a mixture of perfluorinated alcohols and anhydrides to form perfluoroacyl perfluoroalkyl esters. 20 proteinogenic amino acids were derivatized with the two procedures and submitted to GC–MS analysis on a Chirasil-l-Val stationary phase. The results were then compared in terms of the enantiomeric separation achieved and intensity of MS response. The combination of methyl chloroformate (MCF) and heptafluoro-1-butanol (HFB) allows separation of 14 enantiomeric pairs, five of which display a resolution (R_s ≥ 1.2) supposed to be sufficient to quantify the enantiomeric excess. Three mixtures of trifluoroacetic (TFAA) and heptafluorobutyric (HFBA) anhydrides were combined with the corresponding perfluorinated alcohols – TFE (2,2,2-trifluoro-1-ethanol) and HFB (2,2,3,3,4,4,4-heptafluoro-1-butanol) – to give three different reagents (TFAA–TFE, TFAA–HFB, HFBA–HFB): the derivatives obtained show separation of the same number of proteinogenic amino acids (14 of 20) at a temperature lower than column bleeding limit (200 °C) and 8 of them give a separation with R_s ≥ 1.2. Linearity study and limit of detection (X_LOD) computation show that both methods are suitable for quantitative determination of several amino acid diastereomers at trace level (X_LOD ≈ 0.5 nmol as derivatized quantity). Both the procedures were coupled with automatic data handling to increase their suitability for space analysis: the simplified data treatment is especially helpful to handle the low quality data recovered from space experiments and labor and time are saved, as imposed by the space experiments requiring a rapid delivery of the results. To achieve this aim, a chemometric approach based on the computation of the Autocovariance Function (ACVF) was applied to extract information on the enantiomeric pairs present in the sample and the enantioseparation achieved on the chiral column.     

Application of Langmuir–Blodgett technology for the analysis of saturated fatty acids using the MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

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Development of a method for metabolomic analysis of human exhaled breath condensate by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry in high resolution mode

Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a promising biofluid scarcely used in clinical analysis despite its non-invasive sampling. The main limitation in the analysis of EBC is the lack of standardized protocols to support validation studies. The aim of the present study was to develop an analytical method for analysis of human EBC by GC–TOF/MS in high resolution mode. Thus, sample preparation strategies as liquid–liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction were compared in terms of extraction coverage. Liquid–liquid extraction resulted to be the most suited sample preparation approach providing an average extraction efficiency of 77% for all compounds in a single extraction. Different normalization approaches were also compared to determine which strategy could be successfully used to obtain a normalized profile with the least variability among replicates of the same sample. Normalization to the total useful mass spectrometry signal (MSTUS) proved to be the most suited strategy for the analysis of EBC from healthy individuals (n = 50) reporting a within-day variability below 7% for the 51 identified compounds and a suited data distribution in terms of percentage of metabolites passing the Skewness and Kurtosis test for normality distribution. The composition of EBC was clearly dominated by the presence of fatty acids and derivatives such as methyl esters and amides, and volatile prenol lipids. Therefore, EBC offers the profile of both volatile and non-volatile components as compared to other similar biofluids such as exhaled breath vapor, which only provides the volatile profile. This human biofluid could be an alternative to others such as serum/plasma, urine or sputum to find potential markers with high value for subsequent development of screening models.     

Dynamic pH barrage junction focusing of amino acids,peptides, and digested monoclonal antibodies in capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry

Dynamic pH barrage junction focusing in CE enables effective signal enhancement, quantitative capture efficiencies, and straightforward optimization. The method is a technical variant of dynamic pH junction focusing. CE separation with dynamic pH barrage junction focusing is compatible with both optical and mass spectrometric detection. We developed a CE–MS/MS method using hydrophilic polyethyleneimine-coated capillaries and validated it for the qualitative analysis of amino acids, peptides, and tryptic peptides of digested monoclonal antibodies. The S/N of extracted ion electropherograms of zwitterionic analytes were enhanced by approximately two orders of magnitude with a tradeoff of a shortened separation window. Online focusing improved the MS signal intensity of a diluted antibody digest, enabling more precursor ions to be analyzed with subsequent tandem mass spectrometric identification. It also broadened the concentration range of protein digest samples for which adequate sequence coverage data can be obtained. With only 0.9 ng of digested infliximab sample loaded into the capillary, 76% and 100% sequence coverage was realized for antibody heavy and light chains, respectively, after online focusing. Full coverage was achieved with 9 ng of injected digest.     

Fission track–secondary ion mass spectrometry as a tool for detecting the isotopic signature of individual uranium containing particles

A fission track technique was used as a sample preparation method for subsequent isotope abundance ratio analysis of individual uranium containing particles with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to measure the particles with higher enriched uranium efficiently. A polycarbonate film containing particles was irradiated with thermal neutrons and etched with 6 M NaOH solution. Each uranium containing particle was then identified by observing fission tracks created and a portion of the film having a uranium containing particle was cut out and put onto a glassy carbon planchet. The polycarbonate film, which gave the increases of background signals on the uranium mass region in SIMS analysis, was removed by plasma ashing with 200 W for 20 min. In the analysis of swipe samples having particles containing natural (NBL CRM 950a) or low enriched uranium (NBL CRM U100) with the fission track–SIMS method, uranium isotope abundance ratios were successfully determined. This method was then applied to the analysis of a real inspection swipe sample taken at a nuclear facility. As a consequence, the range of ²³⁵U/²³⁸U isotope abundance ratio between 0.0276 and 0.0438 was obtained, which was higher than that measured by SIMS without using a fission track technique (0.0225 and 0.0341). This indicates that the fission track–SIMS method is a powerful tool to identify the particle with higher enriched uranium in environmental samples efficiently.     

Assessing the suitability of a green solvent for gel permeation chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis

The study presents the possibility of performing the analysis of oligomeric structures and polymer additives by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) mass spectrometry (MS) in dibuthoxymethane (DBM, butylal), a halogen-free and less hazardous solvent than typically used chloroform and tetrahydrofuran. Polystyrene oligomers and Irganox® additives were analyzed in DBM using 2.1?mm internal diameter GPC columns, allowing to decrease the flow rate down to 50?µL/min, compatible with APCI–MS interface. The ionization was controlled by adding 1% chloroform in DBM to obtain (M+Cl)^? adducts, allowing a fast optimization of method parameters.     

Capillary electrophoresis with direct chemiluminescence detection for the analysis of catecholamines in human urine

A rapid and sensitive method for the analysis of three catecholamines by capillary electrophoresis(CE)with directchemiluminescence(CL)detection is described.The detection limits(S/N=3)were 1.3*10-8g/mL for isoprenaline,1.0*10-8g/mL for epinephrine and 2.8*10-8g/mL for dopamine.The proposed method was successfully applied to theanalysis of catecholamines in urine samples of cigarette smokers and nonsmokers.The results showed that there is a close relationbetween the release of dopamine in human body fluids and cigarette smoking/nonsmoking.     

Comparison of liquid chromatography-microchip/mass spectrometry to conventional liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry for the analysis of steroids

The feasibility of a microfluidic-based liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/mass spectrometric system (HPLC-Chip/ESI/MS) was studied and compared to a conventional narrow-bore liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization/mass spectrometric (LC-ESI/MS) system for the analysis of steroids. The limits of detection (LODs) for oxime derivatized steroids, expressed as concentrations, were slightly higher with the HPLC-Chip/MS system (50–300 pM) using an injection volume of 0.5 μL than with the conventional LC-ESI/MS (10–150 pM) using an injection volume of 40 μL. However, when the LODs are expressed as injected amounts, the sensitivity of the HPLC-Chip/MS system was about 50 times higher than with the conventional LC-ESI/MS system. The results indicate that the use of HPLC-Chip/MS system is clearly advantageous only in the analysis of low-volume samples. Both methods showed good linearity and good quantitative and chromatographic repeatability. In addition to the instrument comparisons with oxime derivatized steroids, the feasibility of the HPLC-Chip/MS system in the analysis of non-derivatized and oxime derivatized steroids was compared. The HPLC-Chip/MS method developed for non-derivatized steroids was also applied to the quantitative analysis of 15 mouse plasma samples.     

Comparison of supercritical fluid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the stereoselective analysis of chlorfenvinphos and dimethylvinphos in tobacco

This study used reversed-phase liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and supercritical fluid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for determination of the stereoisomers of chlorfenvinphos and dimethylvinphos in tobacco. Tobacco samples were extracted and purified with a modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe technique using spherical carbon. The performance of both methodologies was comprehensively compared in terms of methods validation parameters (separation efficiency, linearity, selectivity, recovery, repeatability, sensitivity, matrix effect, etc.). Under optimized conditions, the calibration curves of the stereoisomers of chlorfenvinphos and dimethylvinphos in the range of 10–500 ng/mL showed excellent linearity with R² ≥ 0.997 in both methods. The adequate recoveries of analytes from three different spiked tobaccos were obtained using reversed-phase liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (86.1–95.7%) as well as supercritical fluid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (86.5–94.0%). The relative standard deviations for spiked samples were all below 7.0%. Compared with supercritical fluid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, lower matrix effects and LODs can be obtained in reversed-phase liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.     

Study of the precision in the purge-and-trap–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of volatile compounds in honey

Data precision in the analysis by purge-and-trap coupled on-line to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (P&T-GC–MS) of honey volatiles has been studied by statistical analysis. The contribution of non-random factors to dispersion of quantitative results was proven by comparing several statistical parameters (correlation coefficients, principal component analysis (PCA) eigenvalues and loadings) from both experimental and simulated data. PCA was also useful for grouping volatiles with similar dispersion behaviour; these groups being generally related to compounds with common properties or structural features. The use of area ratios improves data precision for compounds within the same group. Results from this study could be used for a better selection of internal standards in quantitative analysis of volatiles by P&T-GC–MS.     

Surface sampling capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry for a direct chemical characterization of tissue and blood samples

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a powerful separation tool for non-targeted analysis of chemically complex samples, such as blood, urine, and tissue. However, traditionally CE requires samples in solution for analysis, which limits information on analyte distribution and heterogeneity in tissue. The recent development of surface sampling CE–mass spectrometry (SS-CE–MS) brings these advantages of CE to solid samples and enables chemical mapping directly from the tissue surface without laborious sample preparation. Here, we describe developments of SS-CE–MS to increase reproducibility and stability for metabolite, lipid, and protein extraction from tissue sections and dried blood spots. Additionally, we report the first electrokinetic sequential sample injection for high throughput analysis. We foresee that the wide molecular coverage from a distinct tissue region in combination with higher throughput will provide novel information on biological function and dysfunction.     

Fast,sensitive and highly discriminant gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method for profiling analysis of fatty acids in serum

A method for the determination of fatty acids in serum based on GC–MS (micro-SIS detection mode) has been developed and the separation and cis/trans isomers have been identified. A prior two-step extraction/derivatization procedure accelerated by ultrasound allows individual determination of esterified (EFAs) and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), and shortening of the derivatization steps to 5 min for EFAs and 15 min for NEFAs. The total analysis time for 39 fatty acids was 61 min. The minimum LOD and LOQ values were 0.002 and 0.006 μg/ml, respectively. The proposed method was validated for EFAs and NEFAs using two different methods and the results show no statistical differences between the proposed method and those used as reference. The proposed derivatization–extraction methodology is suitable for fatty-acid analysis of human serum, and can be applied to nutritional and epidemiological studies.