Aminoglycoside antibiotics may interfere with microbial amino sugar analysis

The amino sugars (e.g., glucosamine, galactosamine, mannosamine, muramic acid) in soils are frequently employed as biomarkers of microbial residues. The analysis of amino sugars in environmental matrices, however, is expected to be more complicated than their determination in isolated microbial cells. In this study, we employed a widely used protocol for amino sugar analysis, and found that some aminoglycoside antibiotics interfere with amino sugar quantification in vitro. The method converts the aminoglycosides to compounds that coelute with the aldononitrile acetate derivatives of the amino sugars. Specifically, streptomycin significantly interferes with muramic acid analysis, and kanamycin, tobramycin and amikacin hamper glucosamine measurement. Mass spectrometry confirmed that the interfering compounds from aminoglycosides are not actually genuine microbial amino sugar monomers (bacterial muramic acid or fungal glucosamine), and are most likely to be N-methyl glucosamine or 3-amino-3-deoxy-glucopyranose. In contrast to their effects on muramic acid and glucosamine analyses, aminoglycosides do not interfere with galactosamine and mannosamine quantification. The few data that exist on the environmental occurrence of aminoglycoside antibiotics suggest they occur at only trace levels. Our findings may have implications for the qualitative and quantitative validity of results from amino sugar assays in some context. Application of the aldononitrile acetate derivatization method to samples (especially in selective microbial cultures using aminoglycosides as inhibitors) requires that potential interference be evaluated.     

Critical re-investigation of the alditol acetate method for analysis of substituent distribution in methyl cellulose

The alditol acetate method is a common procedure for sugar analysis, also applied to determine the substituent distribution in monomer units of polysaccharide ethers like methyl cellulose by gas liquid chromatography. Consisting of several preparation and work-up steps this procedure is both time consuming and prone to side reactions that promote discrimination of single constituents, especially when no peralkylation step is performed prior to hydrolysis. As a consequence results scatter in dependence on individual treatment and conditions. In the context of this work these critical points were overcome by strict but simplified work-up procedures and using acid instead of alkaline catalyzed acetylation. Under the acidic conditions the tedious removal of borate is no longer necessary and a reduced time requirement was achieved as well as good reproducibility. Comparison with independent reference methods excluded a systematic error of the method and confirmed the results obtained. Without peralkylation, i.e. in the presence of free hydroxyl groups, another fast modification of the method using DMSO as solvent, no removal of borate, and 1-methylimidazole as catalyst for acetylation was found to produce a systematic error.     

Use of capillary electrophoresis and laser-induced fluorescence for attomole detection of amino acids

A capillary electrophoresis and laser-induced fluorescence (CE-LIF) method was developed to identify and quantitate at amol (10(-18)) concentration. Amino acids were derivatized with 3-(4-carboxybenzoyl)-2-quinoline-carboxaldehyde prior to CE-LIF analysis. The assay was developed by varying the sodium borate concentration, buffer pH, operating voltage, and operating temperature. A run buffer system containing 6.25 mM borate, 150 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate, and 10 mM tetrahydrofuran (pH 9.66) at 25 degrees C, and 24 kV provided analysis conditions for a high-resolution, sensitive, and repeatable assay of amino acids. The rate of derivatization, stability of the labeled amino acids, and amino acid quantitation varied for each amino acid. Amino acids were detected with greater efficiency by this method than automated HPLC amino acid analysis. The repeatability of the assay ranged from 0.3 to 0.9% within a day and 0.7 to 1.5% between analysis days. Bacterial amino acid utilization in a chemically defined medium was successfully monitored using this method. This work defines a sensitive and repeatable method for the detection of amino acids during bacterial metabolism.     

Amino acid analysis in five pooled single plant cell samples using capillary electrophoresis coupled to laser-induced fluorescence detection

In this study 21 amino acid standards, samples of pure phloem sap and samples of pooled mesophyll cells were derivatized with fluorescein isothiocyanate, separated by capillary electrophoresis and detected with laser-induced fluorescence at 488 nm. Two different background electrolytes, a sodium borate buffer containing sodium dodecyl sulfate and a sodium borate buffer containing alpha-cyclodextrin, were used for the separation. Using the sodium dodecyl sulfate buffer, 14 amino acid standards could be separated, spiking identified 12 amino acids in pure phloem sap and 13 amino acids in pooled mesophyll cells. With the alpha-cyclodextrin containing background electrolyte, a resolution of 20 amino acid standards could be attained, 17 amino acids in pure phloem sap and 10 amino acids in mesophyll cells could be assigned. Leucine and isoleucine comigrated in both buffer systems. All separations were performed with a voltage of +20 kV and completed within 30 min. The detection limits obtained were in the fmol range for the sodium dodecyl sulfate and in the pmol range for the alpha-cyclodextrin background electrolyte. Compared to the one published capillary electrophoresis-based method for the determination of amino acids from few plant cells, the procedure described here allows very high sensitivity due to the use of laser-induced fluorescence detection and opens the possibility to dilute and measure pl samples with an fully automated, commercially available CE system.     

Structure-retention index relationships for derivatized monosaccharides on non-polar gas chromatography columns.

A gas chromatographic method for predicting the retention index of a derivatized monosaccharide is presented. The procedures are especially useful to detect and predict minute quantities of sugars in biological or chemical samples. Monosaccharides are first converted to the alditols and then derivatized by acetylation, permethylation or silylation. The derivatized monosaccharide structure-retention index relationship that has been developed is useful in the identification of unknown monosaccharides that can be readily confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.     

Detection of neutral and aminosugars from glycoproteins and polysaccharides as their alditol acetates

A new method for the preparation and separation of alditol acetates from neutral sugars has been applied to aminosugars. Reduced aminosugars were rapidly acetylated using 1-methylimidazole as the catalyst without removal of borate formed during reduction. The alditol acetates were separated by glass capillary gas chromatography on Silar 10C. The alditol acetates of aminosugars had retention times much longer than those of neutral sugars. However, the alditol acetates of the deamination products of aminosugars had shorter retention times and were resolved from those of neutral sugars. This method was used for the simultaneous detection of neutral and aminosugars in acid hydrolysates of chitin and the glycoproteins, ovalbumin and peroxidase.     

Ultramicro Analysis of Reducing and Non-Reducing Sugars by Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A post-column detection system for ultramicro amount of sugars has been developed using taurocyamine as the labelling reagent. Less than 10 pmol of reducing sugars were determined by this HPLC system. Non-reducing sugars were detected by the addition of periodate to the reagent.

Modification of the reaction reagent components made this detection system feasible to apply to various methods for separation of carbohydrates using pure water, acetonitrile/water mixtures, borate buffer or aqueous sodium hydroxide as the eluent.     

Determination of reducing end sugar residues in oligo- and polysaccharides by gas-liquid chromatography

Reducing end sugar residues in maltodextrins and arabinoxylans are determined as alditol acetates by gas-liquid chromatography following reduction, acid hydrolysis and acetylation of the samples. After this conversion to alditol acetates, the reducing end sugars are thus separated from their acetylated aldose counterparts. The method allows to identify individual reducing end sugars quantitatively and is a good alternative for colorimetric reducing sugar assays and 1H-NMR analysis. To demonstrate the advantages of the method, an application in a study of enzymic solubilisation and degradation of water unextractable arabinoxylan from a flour squeegee fraction is described.     

Optimizing high-performance liquid chromatography method for quantification of glucosamine using 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate derivatization in rat plasma: application to a pharmacokinetic study

A sensitive and reliable HPLC method with fluorescence detection based on the precolumn derivatization of glucosamine with 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxylsuccinimidyl carbamate (AQC) was established for the quantitative determination of glucosamine in rat plasma. The plasma protein was precipitated by acetonitrile, followed by vortex mixing and centrifugation. The supernatant was divided into the organic layer and aqueous layer by adding sodium chloride, and then the aqueous layer was derivatized with AQC in 0.2 M borate buffer of pH 8.8 before the HPLC analysis. An amino acid analysis column (3.9 x 150 mm, 4 microm) was applied, with 140 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH = 5.25) and acetonitrile as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. A linear correlation coefficient of 0.9987 was calculated within the range of 0.1-30 microg/mL of the standard curve for glucosamine. The limit of detection was 30 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions (as RSD) were less than 7.38 and 12.72%, respectively. The intra- and inter-day accuracy ranged from 91.8 to 110.0%. Extraction recoveries of glucosamine in plasma were more than 90%. The validated method was successfully applied for the quantitative determination of glucosamine in rat plasma and evaluation for pharmacokinetic study of glucosamine. It was also possible to be applied for the quantitative determination of other compounds containing amino group in biological samples.     

Amino acid, fatty acid, and carbohydrate content of Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit)

A study is conducted to determine the amino acid, fatty acid, and carbohydrate content of breadfruit using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). An HPLC method is used for the determination of amino acids and fatty acids in breadfruit. Representative amino acid samples are derivatized with phenylisothiocianate and the resulting phenylthiocarbamyl derivatives are separated on a reversed-phase column by gradient elution with a 0.05M ammonium acetate buffer and 0.01M ammonium acetate in acetonitrile-methanol-water (44:10:46, v/v). Representative fatty acid samples are derivatized with phenacyl bromide and the resulting fatty acid phenacyl esters are separated on a reversed-phase column by gradient elution with acetonitrile and water. Amino acid and fatty acid derivatives are detected by ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. The analysis of the carbohydrates in breadfruit employs a GC method. Carbohydrates are derivatized using trimethylchlorosilane and hexamethyldisilazane to form trimethylsilyl ethers. Compounds in the samples are separated by the temperature programming of a GC using nitrogen as the carrier gas. Percent recoveries of amino acids, fatty acids, and carbohydrates are 72.5%, 68.2%, and 81.4%, respectively. The starch content of the breadfruit is 15.52 g/100 g fresh weight.     

Separation of elastin cross-links as phenylisothiocyanate derivatives.

A method has been developed for the separation and quantitation of desmosines in tissue samples. The tissue is treated with cold 10% trichloroacetic acid to remove collagen and hydrolysed in HCl vapours in sealed vials. Preseparation of desmosines from tissue acid hydrolysates is performed on a cellulose column, first eluted with n-butanol-acetic acid-water to wash out other amino acids and then with water to recover desmosines. Separated desmosines are then derivatized with phenylisothiocyanate and determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography using a gradient system with sodium acetate pH 6.4 and acetonitrile. Desmosines were detected spectrophotometrically at 254 nm. The method was applied to the determination of desmosine in elastin, rat aorta and bovine ligamentum nuchae.     

Different Protonation Equilibria of 4‐Methylimidazole and Acetic Acid

Dynamic protonation equilibria in water of one 4‐methylimidazole molecule as well as for pairs and groups consisting of 4‐methylimidazole, acetic acid and bridging water molecules are studied using Q‐HOP molecular dynamics simulation. We find a qualitatively different protonation behavior of 4‐methylimidazole compared to that of acetic acid. On one hand, deprotonated, neutral 4‐methylimidazole cannot as easily attract a freely diffusing extra proton from solution. Once the proton is bound, however, it remains tightly bound on a time scale of tens of nanoseconds. In a linear chain composed of acetic acid, a separating water molecule and 4‐methylimidazole, an excess proton is equally shared between 4‐methylimidazole and water. When a water molecule is linearly placed between two acetic acid molecules, the excess proton is always found on the central water. On the other hand, an excess proton in a 4‐methylimidazole‐water‐4‐methylimidazole chain is always localized on one of the two 4‐methylimidazoles. These findings are of interest to the discussion of proton transfer along chains of amino acids and water molecules in biomolecules.     

Simultaneous determination of glucose, 1,5-anhydro-d-glucitol and related sugar alcohols in serum by high-performance liquid chromatography with benzoic acid derivatization

A new, simple and sensitive pre-column high-performance chromatographic method for the determination of diabetes marker d-glucose, 1,5-anhydro-d-glucitol and related compounds is reported. Sugars (d-glucose, d-galactose, d-mannose, sucrose and arabinose) were derivatized with benzoic acid (BA) at 80 degrees C for 60 min. l-Fucose, fructose, d-lactose, l-rhamnose, arabinose and ascorbic acid were not reacted. Sugar alcohols (xylitol, erythritol, mannitol, sorbitol myo-inositol) were also derivatized with BA at 80 degrees C for 60 min. The fluorescence derivatives were separated on a TSK amide 80 column (4.6 mm i.d. x 250 mm, 5 microm) with acetonitrile-50 mm acetate buffer (pH 5.6; 4:96, v/v) as the mobile phase. The detection wavelength of beizoic acid derivatives was lambda(ex) 275 nm and lambda(em) 315 nm. The detection limits of sugars were 10-80 microg/mL. The calibration graphs were linear up to 10 mg/mL. The relative standard deviations of 500 microg/mL sugars were 7.0-7.3%. The proposed method was compared with the enzymatic photometric glucose analysis method (Glucose B-Test II Wako). The correlation coefficient was 0.83 (n = 20) and y = 0.82x + 5.91, where y and x are concentrations in microg/mL obtained by the proposed pre-column HPLC and enzyme-photometric method, respectively. The detection limits of sugar alcohols were 100-1000 ng/mL. The calibration graphs were linear to 50 microg/mL and relative standard deviations of 10 microg/mL were 7.2-8.2%. The 1,5-AG data by the proposed method was also compared with the enzymatic photometric 1,5-AG analysis method (Rana AG 1,5-AG determination kit, Nihon Kayaku) and good correlation (r = 0.91, n = 20) was also obtained. The proposed method was applied to the simultaneous determination of d-glucose, 1,5-AG and related sugar alcohols in serum from healthy males.     

Anion-exchange separation of hydroxy acids in acetate medium

A great number of hydroxy acids have been separated in an anion-exchange column using sodium acetate as eluant. It is essential that lactones be saponified before loading the column. With hydroxy acids containing only one or two hydroxyl groups this method is superior to separations in borate medium. With complicated mixtures the methods supplement each other.     

烟草中糖的毛细管区带电泳分离

 采用高效毛细管电泳 紫外吸收法 (HPCE UV) ,以对氨基苄腈为衍生试剂 ,通过改进缓冲溶液添加剂 ,对烟草中 5种糖的衍生物进行了分离。该法使用 pH 10 5 ,5 0mmol/L硼砂缓冲液 ,其中添加剂含量为甲醇 5 % (体积分数 ,下同 )、乙腈 5 %、乙二醇 2 5 %、异丙醇 2 5 %和十二烷基硫酸钠 (SDS) 1mmol/L。测定波长为 2 85nm。     

Simple and sensitive liquid chromatographic method with fluorimetric detection for the analysis of gabapentin in human plasma

A simple and sensitive liquid chromatographic method is described for the quantitative analysis of gabapentin in human plasma. Gabapentin (GBP) is an anticonvulsant and widely used in the treatment of epilepsy. No peculiar chromophore is available on gabapentin moiety for direct analysis by absorption spectrophotometry. In human plasma after deproteinisation with acetonitrile, gabapentin was derivatized with a fluorescent reagent, (2-naphthoxy)acetyl chloride (NAC) in borate buffer (pH 10.0). The resulting naphthoxy derivative of gabapentin was separated on a phenyl-hexyl column with a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of sodium acetate buffer (100 mM; pH 5.0)-methanol (32:68, v/v) used in isocratic mode. Using fluorimetric detection (excitation at 225 nm and emission at 360 nm), a low detection limit of about 0.04 microM (S/N = 3, 10 microl injected) was reached. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of the method for intra- and inter- day analyses (n = 5) are between 2.7 and 4.0%, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of gabapentin in plasma from dosed patients for therapeutic drug monitoring.     

Spectroscopic and potentiometric studies on derivatized natural humic acid.

Isolated soil humic acid (HA) and commercial Aldrich HA were derivatized by esterification with methanol-thionyl and acetylation with acetic anhidride, in order to obtain derivatives with selectively blocked carboxyl and phenol groups, respectively. Results obtained by FT-IR spectroscopy and potentiometry show that the methanol-thionyl procedure is a selective, specific and efficient route for blocking carboxyl groups. The good correlation between results obtained by direct potentiometry after HA esterification and by classical calcium-acetate and baryta exchange methods suggests that esterification followed by direct acid-base potentiometric titration can be used as a method for the estimation of carboxyl and phenol group contents. Phenol groups can not be specifically identified by the acetylation method, due to the low selectivity of the acetylation method. The average values of apparent and intrinsic pK of underivatized and derivatized HAs confirm decrease in ionizable groups content due to derivatization and their values are related to the different chemical structures of the acids.     

Separation and sensitive determination of i-urobilin and 1-stercobilin by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection.

i-Urobilin and 1-stercobilin were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography on a reversed-phase octadecylsilane-bonded column and detected fluorimetrically through formation of phosphor with zinc ions in the eluent. The separation and the intensity of the fluorescence response were affected by concentrations of zinc acetate and sodium borate buffer, pH and methanol content in the eluent. The optimal eluent used consisted of 0.1% zinc acetate in 75 mM boric acid buffer (pH 6.0)-methanol (25:75). The detection limit was 0.2 microgram/l for both i-urobilin and 1-stercobilin (signal-to-noise ratio 2), which makes the method 250-2500 times more sensitive than conventional methods.     

The Rapid Determination of Neutral Sugars in Biological Samples by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A procedure for the analysis of neutral sugars in biological specimens is described. The method entails acid hydrolysis of the sample to liberate monosaccharides, which are subsequently derivatized with dansyl hydrazine. The sugar-dansyl hydrazones are separated and quantitated by hplc on a 5μ C18 RadialPak column with a gradient of acetonitrile in 10mM ammonium sulfate at pH 7. Fluorescent detection of the derivatized sugars permits 100-fold increased sensitivity compared to previously published glc methods.

This procedure was applied to the neutral sugar analysis of a glycoprotein of known composition (thyroglobulin) and to hard keratin fibers. The latter substance served as a model to critically evaluate the method on a highly resistant biological matrix containing low concentrations of neutral sugars.     

Determination of Glutamine and Asparagine by Isocratic Elution Reverse Phase Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescent Detection

Abstract

A method was developed specifically for the determination of glutamine and asparagine in the presence or absence of other amino acids. The amino acids were derivatized by o-phthalaldehyde/ 2-mercaptoethanol and separated by isocratic elution with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and sodium acetate buffer. An application of the method for the analysis of glutamine and asparagine in the enzymatic hydrolysate of cottonseed protein is described.