Liquid chromatographic analysis of guanidino compounds using furoin as a new fluorogenic reagent

A new approach for trace analysis of guanidine compounds in surface water with resorcinarene-based ion chromatography columns

Trace levels of pharmaceuticals have been detected in surface water and may pose a health risk to humans and other organisms. New chromatographic materials will help identify and quantify these contaminants. We introduce a new ion chromatographic (IC) material designed to separate cationic pharmaceuticals and report its ability to separate a group of guanidine compounds. Guanidine moieties are strongly basic and protonated under acid conditions, and therefore can potentially be separated on the newly designed stationary phase and detected by ion exchange chromatography. The new column packing material is based on glutamic acids bonded to resorcinarene moieties that in turn are bound to divinylbenzene macroporous resin. Detection limits in the range of 5-30 μg L(-1) were achieved using integrated pulsed amperometric detection (IPAD) for guanidine (G), methylguanidine (MG), 1,1-dimethylbiguanide (DMG), agmatine (AGM), guanidinobenzoic acid (GBA) and cimetidine (CIM). Suppressed conductivity (CD) and UV-vis detection resulted in limits of detection similar to IPAD, in the range of 2-66 μg L(-1), but were not able to detect all of the analytes. Three water sources, river, lake, and marsh, were analyzed and despite matrix effects, sensitivity for guanidine compounds was in the 100 μg L(-1) range and apparent recoveries were 80-96%. The peak area precision was 0.01-2.89% for IPAD, CD and UV-vis detection.

Improved Gas Chromatographic Determination of Guanidino Compounds Using Isovaleroylacetone and Ethyl Chloroformate as Derivatizing Reagents

An improved GC method in terms of sensitivity and decrease in the analysis time has been developed for the analysis of eight guanidino compounds: guanidine (G), methylguanidine (MG), creatinine (CTN), guanidinoacetic acid (GAA), guanidinobutyric acid (GBA), guanidinopropionic acid (GPA), argenine (Arg), and guanidinosuccinic acid (GSA), using isovaleroylacetone (IVA) and ethyl chloroformate (ECF) as derivatizing reagents. The separation was obtained from column HP-5 (30 m × 0.32 mm i.d.) with film thickness of 0.25 μm within 11 min. The linear calibrations were obtained with 0.5 to 50 μg/mL with coefficient of determination (R(2)) within 0.9969 - 0.9998. Limits of detections (LODs) were within 5 - 140 ng/mL. The derivatization, separation and determination was repeatable (n = 6) with relative standard deviation (RSD) within 1.2 - 3.1%. The guanidino compounds were determined in deproteinized serum of healthy volunteers and uremic patients within below LOD to 8.8 μg/mL and below LOD to 43.99 μg/mL with RSD within 1.4 - 3.6%. The recovery of guanidino compounds calculated by standard addition from serum was within 96.1 - 98.9%, with RSD 1.4 - 3.6%.

Benzylic rearrangement stable isotope labeling for quantitation of guanidino and ureido compounds in thyroid tissues by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Benzylic rearrangement stable isotope labeling (BRSIL) was explored to quantify the guanidino and ureido compounds (GCs and UCs). This method employed a common reagent, benzil, to label the guanidino and ureido groups through nucleophilic attacking then benzylic migrating. The use of BRSIL was investigated in the analysis of five GCs (creatine, l-arginine, homoarginine, 4-guanidinobutyric acid, and methylguanidine) and two UCs (urea and citrulline). The labeling was found simple and specific. The introduction of bi-phenyl group and the generation of nitrogen heterocyclic ring in the benzil-d0/d5 labeled GCs and UCs improved the retention behaviors in liquid chromatography (LC) and increased the sensitivity of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) detection. The fragment ion pairs of m/z 182/187 and m/z 210/215 from the benzil-d0/d5 tags facilitated the discovery of potential GCs and UCs candidates residing in biological matrices. The use of BRSIL combined with LC-ESI MS was applied for simultaneously quantitation of GCs and UCs in thyroid tissues. It was demonstrated that nine GCs and UCs were detected, six of which were further quantified based on corresponding standards. It was concluded that five GCs and UCs (l-arginine, homoarginine, 4-guanidinobutyric acid, methylguanidine, and citrulline) were statistically significantly different (p < 0.05) between the para-carcinoma and carcinoma thyroid tissue samples.

A urinary metabolomics study of rats after the exposure to acrylamide by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry

Acrylamide (ACR) is known to induce neurotoxicity in humans and occupational exposure to ACR has an effect on human health. Since some animal experiments indicate the metabolic change caused by the ACR based on the metabolomics, increasing concern is the change of metabolite profiles by the low-dose ACR. In the present study, a low-dose of ACR (18 mg kg(-1)) was administered to male Wistar rats for 40 days. Ultra performance liquid chromatography/time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF MS) was used to examine urine samples from ACR-dosed and control animals. Multiple statistical analyses with principal component analysis (PCA) were used to investigate metabolite profile changes in urine samples, and to screen for potential neurotoxicity biomarkers. PCA showed differences between the ACR-dosed and control groups 20 days after the start of dosing; a bigger separation between the two groups was seen after dosing for 40 days. Levels of 4-guanidinobutanoic acid and 2-oxoarginine were significantly higher in urine from the ACR-dosed group than in urine from the control group after 10 days (p < 0.05). Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested that 4-guanidinobutanoic acid and 2-oxoarginine were the major metabolites. Our results suggest that high levels of 4-guanidinobutanoic acid and 2-oxoarginine may be related to ACR neurotoxicity. These metabolites could, therefore, act as sensitive biomarkers for ACR exposure and be useful for investigating toxic mechanisms. They may also provide a scientific foundation for assessing the effects of chronic low-dose ACR exposure on human health.

A novel taurocyamine kinase found in the protist Phytophthora infestans

Phosphagen kinase (PK), which is typically in the form of creatine kinase (CK; EC 2.7.3.2) in vertebrates or arginine kinase (AK; EC 2.7.3.3) in invertebrates, plays a key role in ATP buffering systems of tissues and nerves that display high and variable rates of ATP turnover. The enzyme is also found with intermittent occurrence as AK in unicellular organisms, protist and bacteria species, suggesting an ancient origin of AK. Through a database search, we identified two novel PK genes, coding 40- and 80-kDa (contiguous dimer) enzymes in the protist Phytophthora infestans. Both enzymes showed strong activity for taurocyamine and, in addition, we detected taurocyamine in cell extracts of P. infestans. Thus, the enzyme was identified to be taurocyamine kinase (TK; EC 2.7.3.4). This was the first phosphagen kinase, other than AK, to be found in unicellular organisms. Their position on the phylogenetic tree indicates that P. infestans TKs evolved uniquely at an early stage of evolution. Occurrence of TK in protists suggests that PK enzymes show flexible substrate specificity.