Bioanalytical methodology for determination of glutamate and aspartate for use in pharmacological sciences with application of Integrated Calibration Method

A new calibration approach based on the adaptation of Integrated Calibration Method (ICM) to consecutive two components analysis in separation science is presented. Consecutive ICM method (C-ICM) was conceptually developed and applied to determination of two excitatory amino acids - glutamate and aspartate in cerebrospinal fluids collected by the use of brain microdialysis from freely-moving animals. Both analytes as a neurotransmitters play an important role in formation of the memory trace, and thus the processes of learning and memory. Due to their low concentration and presence of interferences, considered analytical system - animal brain - was a big challenge. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection (ECD) was used in all experimental work. The most important feature of proposed method is integration of interpolative and extrapolative ways to calculate analyte concentration in single calibration procedure, which consequently leads to obtain series of six estimations of analytical result. Comparison of individual estimations with each other allows for a more in-depth analysis of systematic errors. It was proved that C-ICM approach enables diagnosis and compensation of systematic errors induced by occurrence of interference effects and improvement of accuracy of analytical results. Most of all, it was demonstrated that application of this method is efficient and useful analytical tool in analysis of complicated biological samples in pharmacology and neuroscience.

A comparative study of the performance of acetonitrile and methanol in the multi-linear gradient separation of proteic primary amino acids

The performance of the separation of proteic primary amino acids using multi-linear gradients of acetonitrile and methanol was studied under an experimental-design basis, using an Inertsil ODS-3 column and pre-column derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) and N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC). Elution strength, peak properties, resolution, and analysis time, were examined. The optimal separation was established through modeling, using information obtained from isocratic data. By optimizing the separation with gradients of increasing complexity, acceptable resolution was possible, being glycine/threonine the critical pair. Multi-criteria decision-making (Derringer desirabilities) was applied to balance resolution and analysis time. The more favorable peak distribution for methanol gradients allowed a larger reduction of analysis times, keeping satisfactory resolution, but its smaller elution strength forces the use of concentrations significantly larger. Methanol is, however, less toxic, and the final cost is similar for both solvents.