Separation of polythiolate peptides and metallopeptides by covalent affinity chromatography

Applications of reversible covalent chemistry in analytical sample preparation

Reversible covalent chemistry (RCC) adds another dimension to commonly used sample preparation techniques like solid-phase extraction (SPE), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) or immuno-affinity cleanup (IAC): chemical selectivity. By selecting analytes according to their covalent reactivity, sample complexity can be reduced significantly, resulting in enhanced analytical performance for low-abundance target analytes. This review gives a comprehensive overview of the applications of RCC in analytical sample preparation. The major reactions covered include reversible boronic ester formation, thiol-disulfide exchange and reversible hydrazone formation, targeting analyte groups like diols (sugars, glycoproteins and glycopeptides, catechols), thiols (cysteinyl-proteins and cysteinyl-peptides) and carbonyls (carbonylated proteins, mycotoxins). Their applications range from low abundance proteomics to reversible protein/peptide labelling to antibody chromatography to quantitative and qualitative food analysis. In discussing the potential of RCC, a special focus is on the conditions and restrictions of the utilized reaction chemistry.

Application of covalent affinity chromatography with thiol-disulphide interchange for determination of environmental exposition to heavy metals based on the quantitative determination of Zn-thionein from physiological human fluids by indirect method based on analysis of metal contents

Intoxication with heavy metals results in numerous poisonings and diseases. They disturb metabolism of the system, are the source of cancer, degeneration changes and others. As a result of kidney damage the urine of people exposed to heavy metals contains different low molecular weight proteins, oligopeptides and amino acids, indicating pathological changes. One of the proteins is a very specific metallopolythiopolypeptide--metallothionein (MT). Based on earlier investigations, a very good correlations has been found between the contents of metallothionein in urine and plasma and the concentration of heavy metals in the blood, urine, kidneys, liver and brain and general in level of exposition to heavy metals. The aim of our investigations was to carry out quantitative isolation of Zn-thionein (Zn-Th), in order to determine the level of exposition to heavy metals. For Zn-Th protein isolation by covalent affinity chromatography with thiol-disulphide interchange (CAC-TDI) was applied, which is a modern technique of separation of a high affinity, good repeatability and reproducibility, allowing specific isolation of the thiol-proteins CAC-TDI gel was used as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) support for preconcentration of Zn-Th protein and Zn bonded with Zn-Th from water, rine, plasma and breast milk samples. The investigations showed unfavourable effect of the support on separation of thiol proteins and good correlation between the concentration of MTs protein added to water, plasma and urine and the concentration of protein indirectly determined via atomic absorption spectrometric (AAS) method, by preconcentration on SPE support metals formerly bound with MT protein and absorbed on CAC-TDI gel and calculated from metals concentration. The present paper is a continuation of earlier experiments on quantitation of Hg-thionein and Cd-thionein in physiological fluids and homogenates.

The application of affinity chromatography for quantitative determination of metallothionein in physiological fluids by an indirect method based on analysis of metal contents

An indirect method, based on the analysis of metal contents, for the determination of metallothionein (MT) in body fluids is described. Affinity chromatography gel was used as a solid phase extraction (SPE) support for preconcentration of MT Proteins and metals bound to MT from spiked water and human urine samples. The results showed a good correlation between the concentration of MT proteins added to water or physiological human urine and the concentration of protein indirectly determined by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) recovered by the SPE-affinity chromatography technique and calculated from the metal concentration. The present method can be used in toxicological analysis for determination of MT concentration in physiological fluids in subjects exposed to heavy metals.

Separation and characterization of rat kidney isometallothioneins induced by exposure to inorganic mercury

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied to the separation of metallothionein (MT) isoforms from different tissues from a variety of eukaryotic species. Recently we reported an analytical method for 203Hg-metallothionein, which detects the radioisotope bound to each iso-MT after separation by HPLC on a size-exclusion column coupled with on-line radioactivity flow detection. The MTs can be separated as distinct isoprotein peaks by elution with alkaline buffer solution owing to cation-exchange chromatographic action. In the present work, renal MT from rats exposed to inorganic mercury was separated into four peaks by UV and 203Hg detection. Moreover, it was resolved into four components by non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The two major components correspond to MT-1 and MT-2, which were characterized by amino acid analysis. Finally, Hg induces and binds to both iso-MTs.