Determination of S-adenosylmethionine and S-adenosylhomocysteine in blood plasma by UPLC with fluorescence detection.

A validated approach to determine various methionine cycle metabolites (S-adenosylmethionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine, and methylthioadenosine) in human blood plasma is offered. The approach is based on solid-phase extraction (with grafted phenylboronic acid) and derivatization with chloroacetaldehyde followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. We used a 100 × 2.1 mm × 1.8 µm C18 column for the selective separation of analytes. Chromatographic separation was achieved with gradient elution of acetonitrile (flow rate 0.2 mL/min) from 2 to 20%. The eluent was initially composed of 10 mM KH2PO4 with 10 mM acetic acid and 25 µM heptafluorobutyric acid. The total analysis time was 11 min. Validation of the method included detection of the limit of detection (2 nM), limit of quantification (5 nM), accuracy (97.2-101%), and intra- and interday precision (2.2-9.0%). Analysis of plasma samples from healthy volunteers revealed that the average levels of S-adenosylmethionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine, and methylthioadenosine were 93.6, 20.9 and 14.8 nM, respectively.

Refolding of a fully functional flavivirus methyltransferase revealed that S-adenosyl methionine but not S-adenosyl homocysteine is copurified with flavivirus methyltransferase.

Methylation of flavivirus RNA is vital for its stability and translation in the infected host cell. This methylation is mediated by the flavivirus methyltransferase (MTase), which methylates the N7 and 2'-O positions of the viral RNA cap by using S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) as a methyl donor. In this report, we demonstrate that SAM, in contrast to the reaction by-product S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine, which was assumed previously, is copurified with the Dengue (DNV) and West Nile virus MTases produced in Escherichia coli (E. coli). This endogenous SAM can be removed by denaturation and refolding of the MTase protein. The refolded MTase of DNV serotype 3 (DNV3) displays methylation activity comparable to native enzyme, and its crystal structure at 2.1 Å is almost identical to that of native MTase. We characterized the binding of Sinefungin (SIN), a previously described SAM-analog inhibitor of MTase function, to the native and refolded DNV3 MTase by isothermal titration calorimetry, and found that SIN binds to refolded MTase with more than 16 times the affinity of SIN binding to the MTase purified natively. Moreover, we show that SAM is also copurified with other flavivirus MTases, indicating that purification by refolding may be a generally applicable tool for studying flavivirus MTase inhibition.

Simultaneous detection of S-adenosylmethionine and S-adenosylhomocysteine in mouse and rat tissues by capillary electrophoresis.

A capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) in rat liver and kidney and mouse liver is described. The method can also be used to determine SAM in whole blood. The method provides rapid (approximately 16 min sample to sample) resolution of both compounds in perchloric extracts of tissues. Separation was performed by using an uncoated 50 microm ID capillary with 60 cm total length (50 cm to the detector window). Samples were separated at 22.5 kV and the separation running buffer was 200 mM glycine pH 1.8 (with HCl). The method compares favorably to HPLC methods (r (2) = 0.994 for SAM, r (2) = 0.998 for SAH) and has a mass detection limit of about 10 fmol for both SAM and SAH at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The method is linear over ranges of 1-100 microM SAM and 1-250 microM SAH. This method can be used to determine tissue concentrations of SAM and SAH, two metabolites that can provide insight into many biological processes.

S-adenosylhomocysteine metabolism in Streptomyces flocculus.

S-Adenosylhomocysteine metabolism was studied in cell extracts of streptonigrin-producing Streptomyces flocculus. The major route of metabolism was found to be deamination to form S-inosylhomocysteine. The metabolite was purified by high-performance liquid chromatography and identified by its UV and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra and by its chemical degradation to hypoxanthine.

The chemical synthesis of high specific-activity [35S]adenosylhomocysteine.

The study of the family of transmethylases, critical to normal cellular function and often altered in cancer, can be facilitated by the availability of a high specific-activity S-adenosylhomocysteine. We report the two-step preparation of [35S]adenosylhomocysteine from [35S]methionine at a specific activity of 1420 Ci/mmol in an overall yield of 24% by a procedure involving demethylation of the [35S]methionine to [35S]homocysteine followed by condensation with 5'-chloro-5'-deoxyadenosine. The ease of the reactions, ready availability and low cost of the reagents and high specific-activity and stability of the product make the procedure an attractive one with many uses, and superior to current methodology.

Measurement of S-adenosyl-L-methionine levels by SP Sephadex chromatography.

Cation-exchange chromatography with sulfopropyl Sephadex was used to measure the levels of S-[methyl-3H]adenosyl-L-methionine synthesized by L1210 cells in vitro. Separation of S-[methyl-3H]adenosyl-L-methionine from [methyl-3H]methionine and other metabolites was achieved by stepwise elution with varying concentrations of HCl.