Separation and characterization of aluminium malate species by ion chromatography

Aluminium malate complexes have a high relevance in biological systems. The anionic species present in an aqueous aluminium malate mixture can be investigated by ion chromatography coupled online with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. As malic acid is a chiral ligand, the experiments were carried out using the racemic and the enantiopure forms. In both systems four anionic complexes are observable in the model solutions. One of two crystallized and well-characterized anions, [Al(4)Malate(6)](6-) and [Al(4)Malate(4)](2-), serves as a reference anion for the assignment of one of the species occurring in the model solutions. The main species in the enantiopure aluminium malate model with biological relevance over a wide pH range is the [Al(4)Malate(4)](2-) anion. The [Al(4)Malate(6)](6-) anion is not present in the racemic model solution. This anion suffers complete species disintegration after dissolution. The kinetics of the decay is first order and the activation energy of the decomposition is 74 kJ/mol. A retention model for ion chromatography was used for the determination of the effective charges of the species. The effective charge obtained by the retention model was calibrated in relation to nominal charges of the anions by using several well-defined and differently charged anions and anionic aluminium species.     

Hematoporphyrin derivative: experimental evidence for aggregated species

Absorption and fluorescence properties of hematoporphyrin derivative in different solvent systems are investigated. The presence of a large amount of stable aggregates is demonstrated. The existence of these aggregates represents one major difference between hematoporphyrin derivative and hematoporphyrin free base.     

Optical trapping for the characterization of amyloid-beta aggregation kinetics

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is marked by the accumulation of neuronal plaques from insoluble amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides. Growing evidence for the role of Aβ oligomers in neuronal cell cytotoxicity and pathogenesis has prompted the development of novel techniques to better understand the early stages of aggregation. Near infrared (NIR) optical trapping was applied to characterize the early stages of Aβ aggregation in the presence of a β-sheet intercalating dye, Congo Red (CR), as the fluorescent marker. The integration of fluorescence analysis with NIR optical trapping has provided a new outlook into the first two hours of Aβ aggregation.     

Separation of peptides by pressurized capillary electrochromatography

A pressurized electrochromatography (pCEC) instrument with gradient capability was used in this work for separation of peptides. Three separation modes, namely, pCEC, high-performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresiscan be carried out with the instrument. In pCEC mode, the mobile phase is driven by both electroosmotic flow and pressurized flow, facilitating fine-tuning in selectivity of neutral and charged species. A continuous gradient elution can be carried out conveniently on this instrument, which demonstrates that it is more powerful than isocratic pCEC for separation of complicated samples. The effects of applied voltage, supplementary pressure and ion-pairing agents on separation of peptides in gradient pCEC were investigated. The effects of flow-rate of the pump and the volume of the mixer on resolution were also evaluated.     

Separation and determination of enkephalin-related peptides using capillary electrophoresis

CZE with UV-absorption detection has been used for the separation and determination of enkephalin-related peptides. The experimental conditions, such as pH and concentration of running buffer, applied voltage, injection method, and time, were investigated in detail. Excellent separation efficiency could be obtained for ten enkephalin-related peptides with a 50 microm (ID) x 58 cm capillary using sodium dihydrogen phosphate as the running buffer (pH 3.11) when 20 kV of applied voltage was used. The concentration detection limits were found to be in the range of 0.31-1.94 microg/mL (defined as S/N = 3). The proposed method has been applied to analyze the spiked cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample, and the results showed that CZE is a powerful technique for separation and detection of the above biological peptides.     

Separation of peptides by strong cation-exchange capillary electrochromatography

Separation of small peptides on ion-exchange capillary electrochromatography (IE-CEC) with strong cation-exchange packing (SCX) as stationary phase was investigated. It was observed that the number of theoretical plates for small peptides varied from 240000 to 460000/m, and the relative standard deviation for t0 and the migration time of peptides were less than 0.57% and 0.27%, respectively for ten consecutive runs. Unusually high column efficiency has been explained by the capillary electrophoretic stacking and chromatofocusing phenomena during the injection and separation of positively charged peptides. The sample buffer concentration had a marked effect on the column efficiency and peak area of the retained peptides. The influences of the buffer concentration and pH value as well as the applied voltage on the separation were investigated. It has been shown that the electrostatic interaction between the positively charged peptides and the SCX stationary phase played a very important role in IE-CEC, which provided the different separation selectivity from those in the capillary electrophoresis and reversed-phase liquid chromatography. A fast separation of ten peptides in less than 3.5 min on IE-CEC by adoption of the highly applied voltage was demonstrated.     

Separation of peptides utilizing ultrahigh-temperature micellar electrokinetic chromatography

The use of ultrahigh column temperatures, up to 110 degrees C, in micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography was investigated. The number of plates generated per unit time increased from 0.22 to 12.8 plates/s for separations at 15 degrees C and 110 degrees C, respectively. Ultrahigh-temperature micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography was used for the separation of cyclic undecapeptides (cyclosporins). A minimum resolution of 1.39 was calculated for a critical peak pair at 110 degrees C, which is more than a 50% increase over resolution generated at 40 degrees C. During a run time of more than 90 min at 110 degrees C and at pH 9.3, no sample degradation or solvent boiling was observed.     

Separation of peptides on a polystyrene resin column

A high-performance liquid chromatographic column of porous spherical polystyrene--divinylbenzene copolymer (Hamilton PRP-1) was found to be useful for reversed-phase resolution of a wide range of peptides. Recoveries and resolution were comparable with those from more widely used alkyl silica-based columns. Tests involving more than 40 peptides, ranging from 2 to 34 residues, and 3 proteins, indicated wide applicability of this column. The retention times of peptides of known composition are predicted. The stability of the resin at high pH permits protocols of separation involving successive chromatograms at widely different pH values, and offers a second dimension to the resolving power of a single column.     

Separation of polythiolate peptides and metallopeptides by covalent affinity chromatography

Summary Metallothionein (MT) a low-molecular weight polythiolate metallopeptide was isolated quantitatively by covalent affinity chromatography on Sepharose DTNB support of our own synthesis. The protein was prepared from the vital organs of rats exposed to heavy metals (Hg, Cd).Isolation of low-molecular weight polythiolate and thiolate proteins of a small number of SH-groups are reported. Changes in II and III order structure of the protein and aggregation resulting from chaotic formation of disulphide bridges were observed.A mechanism of separation of polythiolate proteins by covalent chromatography, based on the presented data, is suggested.Presented at the 17th International Symposium on Chromatography, September 25–30, 1988, Vienna, Austria.     

Separation of phosphorylated peptides utilizing dual pH- and temperature-responsive chromatography

The phosphorylation of a peptide is considered to be one of the most important post-translational modification reactions that can alter protein function in mammalian cells. To separate and purify, we developed a dual temperature- and pH-responsive chromatography based on terpolymer composed of N-isopropylacrylamide, N,N'-dimethylaminopropylacrylamide and butylmethacrylate. The property of the surface of the terpolymer-grafted stationary phase altered from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, and from changed to non-charged by changes in the temperature and the pH, respectively. In addition, it was possible to appear and hide ion-exchange groups on the polymer chain surface by temperature changes. These phenomena resulted from changes in the charge and the hydrophobicity of the pH- and temperature-responsive polymer on the stationary surface by controlling the temperature. In the developed environmental-responsive chromatographic system, the ionizable dimethylamino group of N,N'-dimethylaminopropylacrylamide in terpolymer played a key role for the separation. We applied the developed chromatographic system to the separation of phosphorylated compounds, such as phospho-tyrosine, phosphopeptide and oligonucleotides. At a low column temperature, the electrostatic interaction plays a predominant role for retain anionic phosphorylated compounds, because of the strong interaction between the cationic dimethylamino group in the stationary phase and the anionic phosphoric group in the analyte. On the contrary, the hydrophobic interaction became predominant upon increasing the temperature. The results showed that both the electrostatic and the hydrophobic interactions became controllable with a temperature change during the chromatographic process. Dual pH- and temperature-responsive chromatography would be very useful for biomacromolecules separation and purification.     

Open-tubular electrochromatographic characterization of synthetic peptides

The open-tubular electrochromatographic (OT-CEC) migration behavior of a series of peptides, based on a common structural feature, has been characterized using two different types of chemically modified etched capillaries. The organic moieties immobilized onto the capillary inner surface were n-butylphenyl and cholesterol-10-undecenaoate, respectively. The structure-migration behavior of this set of peptides has been studied at several pH values and with methanol at different concentrations as an organic solvent modifier of the buffer electrolyte composition. By comparing the structural properties of the peptides, such as their amino acid sequences, charge-to-mass ratios and intrinsic hydrophobicities to their migrational behavior, the relative contribution of electrophoretic and chromatographic mobility to the overall migration times, elution order, and selectivity has been determined. Moreover, the experimental data provide important insight into procedures that can be used to modulate the separation of peptides in OT-CEC through variation of the composition of the electrolyte buffer as well as via the properties of the bonded organic moiety.     

Separation of peptides from detergents using ion mobility spectrometry

Mass spectrometry (MS) has dramatically evolved in the last two decades and has been the driving force of the spectacular expansion of proteomics during this period. However, the very poor compatibility of MS with detergents is still a technical obstacle in some studies, in particular on membrane proteins. Indeed, the high hydrophobicity of membrane proteins necessitates the use of detergents for their extraction and solubilization. Here, we address the analytical potential of high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) for separating peptides from detergents. The study was focused on peptides from the human integral membrane protein CD9. A tryptic peptide was mixed with the non-ionic detergents Triton X-100 or beta-D-dodecyl maltoside (DDM) as well as with the ionic detergents sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or sodium deoxycholate (SDC). Although electrospray ionization (ESI) alone led to a total suppression of the peptide ion signal on mass spectra with only detection of the detergents, use of FAIMS allowed separation and clear identification of the peptide with any of the detergents studied. The detection and identification of the target compound in the presence of an excess of detergents are then feasible. FAIMS should prove especially useful in the structural and proteomic analysis of membrane proteins.     

激光诱导荧光检测微流控芯片毛细管电泳分离多肽的研究

微流控分析系统是分析科学及分析仪器重要的发展前沿,是90年代初发展起来的微分析系统的主要组成部分及目前较为活跃的领域.将微流控分析系统应用于电泳分离,与传统的电泳分离手段相比较而言,具有微型化、可集成化、速度快、进样量小等特点.它的检测方法有多种,其中激光诱导荧光(Laser induced fluorescence,LIF)法因其灵敏度高,成为微流控芯片分析检测目前最广为采用的方法[1].