Porous graphitic carbon shows promise for the rapid screening partial DPD deficiency in lymphocyte dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase in Chinese, Indian and Malay in Singapore by using semi-automated HPLC-radioassay

Evaluation of predictive tests for screening for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is rapidly degraded by dihyropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD). Therefore, DPD deficiency can lead to severe toxicity or even death following treatment with 5-FU or capecitabine. Different tests based on assessing DPD enzyme activity, genetic variants in DPYD and mRNA variants have been studied for screening for DPD deficiency, but none of these are implemented broadly into clinical practice. We give an overview of the tests that can be used to detect DPD deficiency and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these tests.

Quantification of neutral human milk oligosaccharides by graphitic carbon high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

Defining the biological roles of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOS) requires an efficient, simple, reliable, and robust analytical method for simultaneous quantification of oligosaccharide profiles from multiple samples. The HMOS fraction of milk is a complex mixture of polar, highly branched, isomeric structures that contain no intrinsic facile chromophore, making their resolution and quantification challenging. A liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was devised to resolve and quantify 11 major neutral oligosaccharides of human milk simultaneously. Crude HMOS fractions are reduced, resolved by porous graphitic carbon high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a water/acetonitrile gradient, detected by mass spectrometric specific ion monitoring, and quantified. The HPLC separates isomers of identical molecular weights, allowing 11 peaks to be fully resolved and quantified by monitoring mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios of the deprotonated negative ions. The standard curves for each of the 11 oligosaccharides is linear from 0.078 or 0.156 to 20 μg/ml (R(2)>0.998). Precision (coefficient of variation) ranges from 1% to 9%. Accuracy is from 86% to 104%. This analytical technique provides sensitive, precise, and accurate quantification for each of the 11 milk oligosaccharides and allows measurement of differences in milk oligosaccharide patterns between individuals and at different stages of lactation.

HPLC-Electrospray Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Rapid Determination of Dihydropyrimidine Dehydrogenase Activity

Background: Patients with a partial dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency have an increased risk of developing severe 5-fluorouracil–associated toxicity. We developed a rapid and specific method to measure the DPD activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells using HPLC tandem-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS).

Methods: The activity of DPD was measured with thymine as the substrate, followed by reversed-phase HPLC combined with electrospray ionization MS/MS and detection of the product dihydrothymine with multiple-reaction monitoring. Stable-isotope labeled dihydrothymine was used as the internal standard.

Results: Dihydrothymine was measured within an analytical run of 10 min, with a lower limit of quantification of 54 μg/L (0.4 μmol/L). The intraassay and interassay variations of the DPD activity assay were both <7%. A linear correlation (R2 = 0.980; P <0.001) was observed between the HPLC-MS/MS data and those obtained with a reference method using radiolabeled thymine. There were no systematic differences between the 2 methods, and both methods yielded similar results.

Conclusion: The analysis of the DPD activity with HPLC-MS/MS is rapid, accurate, and sufficiently sensitive to be used as a screening method for patients with a DPD deficiency.

Separation of polar compounds using carbon columns

The objective of this review with 122 references is to provide structure and retention mechanisms of porous graphitic carbon by chromatographic analysis and computational chemical analysis of retention mechanisms. Synthesis methods of porous graphitic carbon are described. Applications for use as matrix for dynamic coating on porous graphitic carbon and direct separation of polar compounds on porous graphitic carbon demonstrated that the physical and chemical stability of graphitic carbons performed in both chromatography and extraction, especially for polar compounds, those are difficult on both silica-based and organic polymer-based packing materials. The disadvantage is difficult desorption of non-polar compounds adsorbed on the surface. The development of 3.5-microm particles improves the separation power of graphitic carbon columns with the high theoretical plate number.