Current and future trends in UHPLC

Repeatability of gradient ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods in instrument-controlled thermal environments

The impact of viscous friction on eluent temperature and column efficiency in liquid chromatography is of renewed interest as the need for pressures exceeding 1000bar to use with columns packed with sub-2μm particles has grown. One way the development of axial and radial temperature gradients that arise due to viscous friction can be affected is by the thermal environment the column is placed in. In this study, a new column oven integrated into an ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatograph that enables both still-air and forced-air operating modes is investigated to find the magnitude of the effect of the axial thermal gradient that forms in 2.1×100mm columns packed with sub-2μm particles in these modes. Temperature increases of nearly 30K were observed when the generated power of the column exceeded 25W/m. The impact of the heating due to viscous friction on the repeatability of peak capacity, elution time, and peak area ratio to an internal standard for a gradient UHPLC-MS/MS method to analyze neurotransmitters was found to be limited. This result indicates that high speed UHPLC-MS/MS gradient methods under conditions of high viscous friction may be possible without the negative effects typically observed with isocratic separations under similar conditions.

Recent developments in the chromatographic bioanalysis of approved kinase inhibitor drugs in oncology

In recent years (2010-present) there has been an increase in the number of publications reporting the development, validation and use of bioanalytical methods in the rapidly expanding drug class of small molecule protein kinase inhibitors. Most reports describe the technological set-up of the methods that have allowed for drug concentration measurements from various sample types. This includes plasma, dried blood-spot, and tissue-analysis. Also method development, exploration of various techniques, as well as measurement and identification of metabolites were addressed. For the bioanalysis, a variety of sample-pretreatment methods like protein-precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction, and solid-phase extraction have been employed, all varying in complexity, cleanliness and time-consumption. Chromatographic separation, nowadays, is more focused on separating components from ion-suppressive effects, since for MS/MS detection, various components do not have to be baseline separated. For detection multiple types of detectors were used, ranging from state-of-the-art high resolution, and tandem mass spectrometry with low picogram per milliliter detection limits to the classical UV-detector with several nanograms per milliliter limits. As new bioanalytical methods have arisen that do rely on chromatographic separation, for example for high-throughput analysis, these are addressed in this review as well.

A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) based metabolomics study on colour stability of ovine meat

Meat colour is one of the cues available to the consumer to gauge overall meat quality and wholesomeness. Colour stability of meat is determined by several factors both inherent to the animal and post-slaughter conditions, including ageing, storage/packaging and display times. A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) based metabolomics study was undertaken to identify and compare polar metabolites between ovine meat samples that were exposed to different durations of ageing, storage conditions, and display times. Primary metabolites comprising amino acids, sugars, nucleotides, nucleosides, organic acids and their breakdown products were mainly identified as discriminating factors. For the first time, boron complexes of sugar and malic acid were also tentatively identified. As expected, most compounds identified were related to myoglobin chemistry, and compounds with antioxidant properties were found in higher levels in colour stable samples. Supplementary studies identifying semi-polar, non-polar and volatile compounds will provide a holistic understanding of the chemical basis of colour stability in ovine meat.

Prediction of retention time in reversed-phase liquid chromatography as a tool for steroid identification

The untargeted profiling of steroids constitutes a growing research field because of their importance as biomarkers of endocrine disruption. New technologies in analytical chemistry, such as ultra high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (MS), offer the possibility of a fast and sensitive analysis. Nevertheless, difficulties regarding steroid identification are encountered when considering isotopomeric steroids. Thus, the use of retention times is of great help for the unambiguous identification of steroids. In this context, starting from the linear solvent strength (LSS) theory, quantitative structure retention relationship (QSRR) models, based on a dataset composed of 91 endogenous steroids and VolSurf + descriptors combined with a new dedicated molecular fingerprint, were developed to predict retention times of steroid structures in any gradient mode conditions. Satisfactory performance was obtained during nested cross-validation with a predictive ability (Q(2)) of 0.92. The generalisation ability of the model was further confirmed by an average error of 4.4% in external prediction. This allowed the list of candidates associated with identical monoisotopic masses to be strongly reduced, facilitating definitive steroid identification.

Determination of Mycotoxins in Brown Rice Using QuEChERS Sample Preparation and UHPLC-MS-MS

QuEChERS sample preparation was optimized and validated using solvent extraction with 10% (v/v) acetic acid-containing acetonitrile in the presence of four salts (anh. MgSO4, NaCl, sodium citrate tribasic dihydrate and sodium citrate dibasic sesquihydrate) and dispersive solid-phase extraction with mixed sorbents (octadecylsilane, primary and secondary amine and silica sorbents) for an ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric determination of nine mycotoxins in brown rice: aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), deoxynivalenol, ochratoxin A and zearalenone (ZON). Our developed method allows for the determination of trace levels of mycotoxins with method detection limits in the range of 1.4-25 µg/kg, below the maximum limits of EU regulations, and with an acceptable accuracy and precision, and recoveries in the range of 81-101% with relative standard deviations of 5-19% over a mycotoxin concentration range of 5.0-1,000 µg/kg. Six out of fourteen real samples of brown rice were found to be contaminated with at least one of these mycotoxins, ranging from 2.49-5.41 µg/kg of FB1, 4.33 ± 0.04 µg/kg of FB2 and 6.10-14.88 µg/kg of ZON.

Penetrable silica microspheres for immobilization of bovine serum albumin and their application to the study of the interaction between imatinib mesylate and protein by frontal affinity chromatography

In the current study, novel featured silica, named penetrable silica, simultaneously containing macropores and mesopores, was immobilized with bovine serum albumin (BSA) via Schiff base method. The obtained BSA-SiO2 was employed as the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) stationary phase. Firstly, D- and L-tryptophan were used as probes to investigate the chiral separation ability of the BSA-SiO2 stationary phase. An excellent enantioseparation factor was obtained up to 4.3 with acceptable stability within at least 1 month. Next, the BSA-SiO2 stationary phase was applied to study the interaction between imatinib mesylate (IM) and BSA by frontal affinity chromatography. A single type of binding site was found for IM with the immobilized BSA, and the hydrogen-bonding and van der Waals interactions were expected to be contributing interactions based on the thermodynamic studies, and this was a spontaneous process. Compared to the traditional silica for HPLC stationary phase, the proposed penetrable silica microsphere possessed a larger capacity to bond more BSA, minimizing column overloading effects and enhancing enantioseparation ability. In addition, the lower running column back pressure and fast mass transfer were meaningful for the column stability and lifetime. It was a good substrate to immobilize biomolecules for fast chiral resolution and screening drug-protein interactions.

Microfluidic desalination techniques and their potential applications

In this review we discuss recent developments in the emerging research field of miniaturized desalination. Traditionally desalination is performed to convert salt water into potable water and research is focused on improving performance of large-scale desalination plants. Microfluidic desalination offers several new opportunities in comparison to macro-scale desalination, such as providing a platform to increase fundamental knowledge of ion transport on the nano- and microfluidic scale and new microfluidic sample preparation methods. This approach has also lead to the development of new desalination techniques, based on micro/nanofluidic ion-transport phenomena, which are potential candidates for up-scaling to (portable) drinking water devices. This review assesses microfluidic desalination techniques on their applications and is meant to contribute to further implementation of microfluidic desalination techniques in the lab-on-chip community.

Evaluation of 5 µm Superficially Porous Particles for Capillary and Microfluidic LC Columns

Large-size (4–5 µm) superficially porous particles yield lower plate heights (e.g., the minimal reduced plate height or h_min ≈ 1.5) than fully porous particles of a similar size when packed into large-bore columns. This property allows for better chromatographic performance without the higher pressures required for smaller particles. This study explores the use of such particles in microfluidic LC columns where materials and fitting pressure limits can constrain the size of particle used. The theoretically predicted performance improvements compared to fully porous particles were not demonstrated in capillary columns (with h_min ≈ 2 for both particle types), in agreement with previous studies that examined smaller superficially porous particles. Microfluidic columns were then compared to capillary columns. Capillary columns significantly outperformed microfluidic columns due to imperfections imposed by microfluidic channel asymmetry and world-to-chip connection at the optimal flow rate; however, superficially porous particles packed in microfluidic LC columns had flatter plate height versus flow rate curves indicating potential for better performance at high reduced velocities.