Chiral secondary amino acids, their importance, and methods of analysis.

Naturally occurring secondary amino acids, with proline as the main representative, contain an alpha-imino group in a cycle that is typically four-, five-, and six-membered. The unique ring structure exhibits exceptional properties-conformational rigidity, chemical stability, and specific roles in protein structure and folding. Many proline analogues have been used as valuable compounds for the study of metabolism of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and for the synthesis of compounds with desired biological, pharmaceutical, or industrial properties. The D-forms of secondary amino acids play different roles in living organisms than the L-forms. They have different metabolic pathways, biological, physiological, and pharmacological effects, they can be indicators of changes and also serve as biomarkers of diseases. In the scientific literature, the number of articles examining D-amino acids in biological samples is increasing. The review summarises information on the occurrence and importance of D- and L-secondary amino acids-azetidic acid, proline, hydroxyprolines, pipecolic, nipecotic, hydroxypipecolic acids and related peptides containing these D-AAs, as well as the main analytical methods (mostly chromatographic) used for their enantiomeric determination in different matrices (biological samples, plants, food, water, and soil).

Ethyl chloroformate mediated gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric biomonitoring of acidic biomarkers of occupational exposure and endogenous metabolites in human urine.

Numerous industrial organic pollutants such as aromates, alkoxyalcohols, other organic solvents and monomers are absorbed, metabolized, and finally excreted in urine mostly as carboxylic acids that are determined as biomarkers of exposure. For a number of these xenometabolites, biological limits (levels of biomarkers in biological material) have been established to prevent damage to human health. Till now, most of the analytical procedures used have been optimized for one or a few analytes. Here, we report a more comprehensive approach enabling rapid GC-MS screening of sixteen acidic biomarkers in urine that are metabolized in the human body from several important industrial chemicals; benzene, toluene, styrene, xylenes, alkoxyalcohols, carbon disulfide, furfural and N,N-dimethylformamide. The new method involves immediate in situ derivatization - liquid liquid microextraction of urine by an ethyl chloroformate-ethanol-chloroform-pyridine medium and GC-MS analysis of the derivatized analytes in the lower organic phase. The xenometabolite set represents diverse chemical structures and some of hippuric and mercapturic acids also provided unusual derivatives that were unambiguously elucidated by means of new ethyl chloroformates labeled with stable isotopes and by synthesis of the missing reference standards. In the next step, an automated routine was developed for GC-MS/MS analysis using a MetaboAuto® sample preparation workstation and the new method was validated for fourteen metabolites over the relevant concentration range of each analyte in the spiked pooled human urine. It shows good linearity (R2 ≥ 0.982), accuracy (from 85% to 120%), precision (from 0.7% to 20%) and recovery (from 89% to 120%). The method performance was further successfully proved by GC-MS/MS analysis of the certified IP45 and RM6009 reference urines. Moreover, we show that the new method opens up the possibility for biomonitoring of combined and cumulative occupational exposures as well as for urinary metabolite profiling of persons exposed to harmful industrial chemicals.

A chiral GC-MS method for analysis of secondary amino acids after heptafluorobutyl chloroformate & methylamine derivatization.

L-amino acids (L-AAs) play different important roles in the physiology of all living organisms. Their chiral counterparts, D-amino acids (D-AAs) are increasingly being recognized as essential molecules in many biological systems. Secondary amino acids with cyclic structures, such as prolines, exhibit conformational rigidity and thus unique properties in the structural and protein folding. Despite their widespread occurrence, much less attention was paid to their chiral analysis, particularly when the minor, typically D-enantiomer, is present in low amounts in a complex biological matrix. In this paper, a cost-effective, chiral GC-MS method is described for capillary Chirasil-L-Val separation of nine cyclic secondary amino acid enantiomers with four-, five-, and six-membered rings, involving azetidine-2-carboxylic acid, pipecolic acid, nipecotic acid, proline, isomeric cis/trans 3-hydroxy, 4-hydroxyproline, and cis/trans-5-hydroxy-L-pipecolic acid in the excess of its enantiomeric antipode. The sample preparation involves in-situ derivatization with heptafluorobutyl chloroformate, simultaneous liquid-liquid micro-extraction into isooctane followed by amidation of the arising low-polar derivatives with methylamine, an evaporation step, re-dissolution, and final GC-MS analysis. The developed method was used for analyses of human biofluids, biologically active peptides containing chiral proline constituents, and collagen.

GC-MS Metabolomic Profiling of Protic Metabolites Following Heptafluorobutyl Chloroformate Mediated Dispersive Liquid Microextraction Sample Preparation Protocol.

A simple analytical workflow is described for gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomic profiling of protic metabolites, particularly amino-carboxylic species in biological matrices. The sample preparation is carried out directly in aqueous samples and uses simultaneous in situ heptafluorobutyl chloroformate (HFBCF) derivatization and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), followed by GC-MS analysis in single-ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The protocol involves ten simple pipetting steps and provides quantitative analysis of 132 metabolites by using two internal standards. A comment on each analytical step and explaining notes are provided with particular attention to the GC-MS analysis of 112 physiological metabolites in human urine.

Profiling of urinary amino-carboxylic metabolites by in-situ heptafluorobutyl chloroformate mediated sample preparation and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A novel 1,1,1,2,2,3,3-heptafluorobutyl chloroformate reagent (HFBCF) was examined for in-situ derivatization of amino-carboxylic metabolites in human urine. The arising reaction products exhibit greatly reduced polarity which facilitates combining the derivatization and liquid-liquid microextraction (LLME) from an aqueous urine into an isooctane phase and immediate gas chromatographic-mas spectrometric analysis (GC-MS). The sample preparation protocol is simple, proceeds without an alcohol excess and provides cleaner extracts than other urinary GC-MS based methods. Moreover, thiol metabolites bound in disulfide bonds can be released by reduction with tris(3-hydroxypropyl)phosphine (THP) prior to the developed derivatization and LLME step. In order to evaluate potential of the novel method for GC-MS metabolomics, reaction products of 153 urinary metabolites with HFBCF, particularly those possessing amino and carboxyl groups (56 amino acids and their conjugates, 84 organic acids, 9 biogenic amines, 4 other polar analytes) and two internal standards were investigated in detail by GC-MS and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). One hundred and twenty metabolites (78%) yielded a single product, 25 (16%) and 2 metabolites (2-methylcitrate, citrate) generated two and more derivatives. From the examined set, analytically applicable products of 5 metabolites were not detected; the derivatives of 3 metabolites were only suitable for LC-MS analysis. Electron ionization (EI) of the examined analytes contained characteristic, diagnostic ions enabling to distinguish related and isomeric structures. The new method was validated for 132 metabolites using two internal standards in artificial urine and with special attention to potential disease biomarker candidates. The developed sample preparation protocol was finally evaluated by means of a certified organic acid standard mixture in urine and by GC-MS analysis of 100 morning urines obtained from healthy patients (50 males and 50 females), where 112 physiological metabolites were quantified in a 25 µL sample aliquot. The quantification data for the set were satisfactory, most metabolites were found within the range reported in the reference human metabolome (HMDB) database and literature. The reported results suggest that the described method has been a novel promising tool for targeted GC-MS based metabolomic analysis in urine.

Seasonal changes in minor membrane phospholipid classes, sterols and tocopherols in overwintering insect, Pyrrhocoris apterus.

Ectotherm animals including insects are known to undergo seasonal restructuring of the cell membranes in order to keep their functionality and/or protect their structural integrity at low body temperatures. Studies on insects so far focused either on fatty acids or on composition of molecular species in major phospholipid classes. Here we extend the scope of analysis and bring results on seasonal changes in minor phospholipid classes, lysophospholipids (LPLs), free fatty acids, phytosterols and tocopherols in heteropteran insect, Pyrrhocoris apterus. We found that muscle tissue contains unusually high amounts of LPLs. Muscle and fat body tissues also contain high amounts of ß-sitosterol and campesterol, two phytosterols derived from plant food, while only small amounts of cholesterol are present. In addition, two isomers (γ and δ) of tocopherol (vitamin E) are present in quantities comparable to, or even higher than phytosterols in both tissues. Distinct seasonal patterns of sterol and tocopherol concentrations were observed showing a minimum in reproductively active bugs in summer and a maximum in diapausing, cold-acclimated bugs in winter. Possible adaptive meanings of such changes are discussed including: preventing the unregulated transition of membrane lipids from functional liquid crystalline phase to non-functional gel phase; decreasing the rates of ion/solute leakage; silencing the activities of membrane bound enzymes and receptors; and counteracting the higher risk of oxidative damage to PUFA in winter membranes.