Peak AAA fatty acid homolog contaminants present in the dietary supplement l-Tryptophan associated with the onset of eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome.

The eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS) outbreak that occurred in the USA and elsewhere in 1989 was caused by the ingestion of Showa Denko K.K. (SD) L-tryptophan (L-Trp). "Six compounds" detected in the L-Trp were reported as case-associated contaminants. Recently the final and most statistically significant contaminant, "Peak AAA" was structurally characterized. The "compound" was actually shown to be two structural isomers resulting from condensation reactions of L-Trp with fatty acids derived from the bacterial cell membrane. They were identified as the indole C-2 anteiso (AAA1-343) and linear (AAA2-343) aliphatic chain isomers. Based on those findings, we utilized a combination of on-line HPLC-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-MS), as well as both precursor and product ion tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to facilitate identification of a homologous family of condensation products related to AAA1-343 and AAA2-343. We structurally characterized eight new AAA1-XXX/AAA2-XXX contaminants, where XXX represents the integer molecular ions of all the related homologs, differing by aliphatic chain length and isomer configuration. The contaminants were derived from the following fatty acids of the bacterial cell membrane, 5-methylheptanoic acid (anteiso-C8:0) for AAA1-315; n-octanoic acid (n-C8:0) for AAA2-315; 6-methyloctanoic acid (anteiso-C9:0) for AAA1-329; n-nonanoic acid (n-C9:0) for AAA2-329; 10-methyldodecanoic acid (anteiso-C13:0) for AAA1-385; n-tridecanoic acid (n-C13:0) for AAA2-385; 11-methyltridecanoic acid (anteiso-C14:0) for AAA1-399; and n-tetradecanoic acid (n-C14:0) for AAA2-399. The concentration levels for these contaminants were estimated to be 0.1-7.9 µg / 500 mg of an individual SD L-Trp tablet or capsule The structural similarity of these homologs to case-related contaminants of Spanish Toxic Oil Syndrome (TOS) is discussed.

Structure determination of disease associated peak AAA from l-Tryptophan implicated in the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome.

The eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS) outbreak of 1989 that occurred in the USA and elsewhere was caused by the ingestion of l-Tryptophan (L-Trp) solely manufactured by the Japanese company Showa Denko K.K. (SD). Six compounds present in the SD L-Trp were reported to be case-associated contaminants. However, "one" of these compounds, Peak AAA has remained structurally uncharacterized, despite the fact that it was described as "the only statistically significant (p=0.0014) contaminant". Here, we employ on-line microcapillary-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to determine that Peak AAA is in fact two structurally related isomers. Peak AAA1 and Peak AAA2 differed in LC retention times, and were determined by accurate mass-LC-MS to both have a protonated molecular ion (MH+) of mass 343.239Da (Da), corresponding to a molecular formula of C21H30N2O2, and possessing eight degrees of unsaturation (DoU) for the non-protonated molecule. By comparing the LC-MS and LC-MS-MS retention times and spectra with authentic synthetic standards, Peak AAA1 was identified as the intermolecular condensation product of L-Trp with anteiso 7-methylnonanoic acid, to afford (S)-2-amino-3-(2-((S,E)-7-methylnon-1-en-1-yl)-1H-indol-3-yl)propanoic acid. Peak AAA2 was determined to be a condensation product of L-Trp with decanoic acid, which produced (S)-2-amino-3-(2-((E)-dec-1-en-1-yl)-1H-indol-3-yl)propanoic acid.