Rapid indirect separation of glutamine enantiomers by micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Analysis of dietary supplements.

Glutamine is the most abundant free proteinogenic α-amino acid. It is naturally produced in the organism and acts as a precursor for the synthesis of different biologically important molecules (such as proteins or nucleotides). However, under stressful conditions, the organism is unable to produce it in enough amounts to function properly. Thus, glutamine (Gln)-based supplements have become increasingly popular over the last decade. Since legal regulations establish that amino acid-based dietary supplements must contain only the L-enantiomer and not the racemate, adequate chiral methodologies are required to achieve their quality control. In this work, an analytical methodology based on the use of micellar electrokinetic chromatography is proposed for the rapid enantiomeric determination of DL-Gln in dietary supplements. Using (+)-1-(9-fluorenyl)-ethyl chloroformate as a derivatizing agent and ammonium perfluorooctanoate as separation medium, the Gln diastereoisomers formed under optimal conditions were separated in 8 min with a resolution of 2.8. The analytical characteristics of the method were evaluated in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, and limits of detection/quantitation, and they were found appropriate for the analysis of L-Gln-based dietary supplements.

Rapid enantiomeric separation of indacaterol by electrokinetic chromatography.

The first chiral methodology enabling the separation of indacaterol enantiomers was developed in this work by cyclodextrin-electrokinetic chromatography. Indacaterol (IND) is a chiral drug marketed as a pure enantiomer. Then, the separation and quantification of each enantiomer is of great importance for the quality control of pharmaceutical formulations. After selecting the most suitable chiral selector and background electrolyte, two Box-Behnken designs were achieved to optimize the electrophoretic conditions using two different approaches to shorten analysis times: i) decreasing the capillary length, or ii) performing a short-end injection. Indacaterol enantiomers were separated in less than 5 min with a resolution value of 3.6 under the optimal separation conditions: 0.7% (m/v) carboxymethyl-α-cyclodextrin in 50 mM sodium formate buffer (pH 4.0) and using a short-end injection. Then, the analytical characteristics of the method were evaluated and LODs of 0.05 mg/L for S-IND and 0.04 mg/L for R-IND were achieved. Also, the method allowed the detection of a 0.1% enantiomeric impurity (S-IND) in the R-IND-based pharmaceutical formulations. The developed method was applied to the analysis of two pharmaceutical formulations. Percentages of 97 ± 3% and 103 ± 6% of R-IND with respect to the labeled amounts were found.

Capillary electromigration methods for food analysis and Foodomics: Advances and applications in the period March 2021 to March 2023.

This work presents a revision of the main applications of capillary electromigration (CE) methods in food analysis and Foodomics. Papers that were published during the period March 2021 to March 2023 are included. The work shows the multiple CE methods that have been developed and applied to analyze different types of molecules in foods and beverages. Namely, CE methods have been applied to analyze amino acids, biogenic amines, heterocyclic amines, peptides, proteins, phenols, polyphenols, pigments, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins, DNAs, contaminants, toxins, pesticides, additives, residues, small organic and inorganic compounds, and other minor compounds. In addition, new CE procedures to perform chiral separation and for evaluating the effects of food processing as well as the last developments of microchip CE and new applications in Foodomics will be also discussed. The new procedures of CE to investigate food quality and safety, nutritional value, storage, and bioactivity are also included in the present review work.

Enantiomeric analysis of drugs in water samples by using liquid-liquid microextraction and nano-liquid chromatography.

The nano-LC technique is increasingly used for both fast studies on enantiomeric analysis and test beds of novel stationary phases due to the small volumes involved and the short conditioning and analysis times. In this study, the enantioseparation of 10 drugs from different families was carried out by nano-LC, utilizing silica with immobilized amylose tris(3-chloro-5-methylphenylcarbamate) column. The effect on chiral separation caused by the addition of different salts to the mobile phase was evaluated. To simultaneously separate as many enantiomers as possible, the effect of buffer concentration in the mobile phase was studied, and, to increase the sensitivity, a liquid-liquid microextraction based on the use of isoamyl acetate as sustainable extraction solvent was applied to pre-concentrate four chiral drugs from tap and environmental waters, achieving satisfactory recoveries (>70%).

Exploring the Metabolic Differences between Cisplatin- and UV Light-Induced Apoptotic Bodies in HK-2 Cells by an Untargeted Metabolomics Approach.

Among the extracellular vesicles, apoptotic bodies (ABs) are only formed during the apoptosis and perform a relevant role in the pathogenesis of different diseases. Recently, it has been demonstrated that ABs from human renal proximal tubular HK-2 cells, either induced by cisplatin or by UV light, can lead to further apoptotic death in naïve HK-2 cells. Thus, the aim of this work was to carry out a non-targeted metabolomic approach to study if the apoptotic stimulus (cisplatin or UV light) affects in a different way the metabolites involved in the propagation of apoptosis. Both ABs and their extracellular fluid were analyzed using a reverse-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry setup. Principal components analysis showed a tight clustering of each experimental group and partial least square discriminant analysis was used to assess the metabolic differences existing between these groups. Considering the variable importance in the projection values, molecular features were selected and some of them could be identified either unequivocally or tentatively. The resulting pathways indicated that there are significant, stimulus-specific differences in metabolites abundancies that may propagate apoptosis to healthy proximal tubular cells; thus, we hypothesize that the share in apoptosis of these metabolites might vary depending on the apoptotic stimulus.

Quantitative multiple fragment monitoring with enhanced in-source fragmentation/annotation mass spectrometry.

Analytical techniques with high sensitivity and selectivity are essential to the quantitative analysis of clinical samples. Liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry is the gold standard in clinical chemistry. However, tandem mass spectrometers come at high capital expenditure and maintenance costs. We recently showed that it is possible to generate very similar results using a much simpler single mass spectrometry detector by performing enhanced in-source fragmentation/annotation (EISA) combined with correlated ion monitoring. Here we provide a step-by-step protocol for optimizing the analytical conditions for EISA, so anyone properly trained in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry can follow and apply this technique for any given analyte. We exemplify the approach by using 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) which is a clinically relevant metabolite whose D-enantiomer is considered an 'oncometabolite', characteristic of cancers associated with mutated isocitrate dehydrogenases 1 or 2 (IDH1/2). We include procedures for determining quantitative robustness, and show results of these relating to the analysis of DL-2-hydroxyglutarate in cells, as well as in serum samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia that contain the IDH1/2 mutation. This EISA-mass spectrometry protocol is a broadly applicable and low-cost approach for the quantification of small molecules that has been developed to work well for both single-quadrupole and time-of-flight mass analyzers.

Untargeted HPLC-MS-based metabolomics approach to reveal cocoa powder adulterations.

Cocoa powder is a highly consumed product all over the world which could be substituted by cheaper raw materials resulting in food fraud. In this work, a non-targeted metabolomics approach based on the use of reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry was developed to carry out the characterization of cocoa powder samples adulterated, at two different levels, with carob flour, soy flour, and chicory. The sample preparation protocol and the chromatographic parameters were optimized to extract and detect the highest number of molecular features. Both non-supervised and supervised statistical methods were employed to analyze the most significant variables that gave rise to group discrimination. From the 21 and 37 significant variables analyzed in positive and negative ionization modes, respectively, a total of 20 were tentatively identified. Different families of compounds including flavonoids, fatty acids, terpenoids, lysophospholipids, and a galactolipid could be pointed out as cocoa adulteration markers.

Synthesis and characterization of carnitine-based ionic liquids and their evaluation as additives in cyclodextrin-electrokinetic chromatography for the chiral separation of thiol amino acids.

In this study, new chiral ionic liquids based on the non-protein amino acid L-carnitine as cationic chiral counterpart and several anions (bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (NTf2-), L-lactate- or Cl-) as counterions were synthesized. Moreover, three different salts based on L-carnitine were also synthesized and the other three were commercially acquired and used for comparison. The synthesized ionic liquids and salts were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. Subsequently, they were used as additives to establish a γ-CD-based dual system for the enantiomeric separation of cysteine and homocysteine (previously derivatized with fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl chloride) by capillary electrokinetic chromatography. The effect of the nature of the anionic counterions and the presence of different substituents on the L-carnitine molecule on the chiral separation of both amino acids was investigated. The enantioseparations obtained with each dual system studied were compared in terms of the enantiomer effective mobilities (µeff) and the effective electrophoretic selectivity (αeff). Practically, all the dual systems evaluated exhibited substantially improved enantioseparations for the two amino acids compared with the single γ-CD system.

Exploratory Metabolomic Analysis Based on Reversed-Phase Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry to Study an In Vitro Model of Hypoxia-Induced Metabolic Alterations in HK-2 Cells.

Oxygen deficiency in cells, tissues, and organs can not only prevent the proper development of biological functions but it can also lead to several diseases and disorders. In this sense, the kidney deserves special attention since hypoxia can be considered an important factor in the pathophysiology of both acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. To provide better knowledge to unveil the molecular mechanisms involved, new studies are necessary. In this sense, this work aims to study, for the first time, an in vitro model of hypoxia-induced metabolic alterations in human proximal tubular HK-2 cells because renal proximal tubules are particularly susceptible to hypoxia. Different groups of cells, cultivated under control and hypoxia conditions at 0.5, 5, 24, and 48 h, were investigated using untargeted metabolomic approaches based on reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Both intracellular and extracellular fluids were studied to obtain a large metabolite coverage. On the other hand, multivariate and univariate analyses were carried out to find the differences among the cell groups and to select the most relevant variables. The molecular features identified as affected metabolites were mainly amino acids and Amadori compounds. Insights about their biological relevance are also provided.

Enantiomeric separation of prothioconazole and prothioconazole-desthio by Capillary Electrophoresis. Degradation studies in environmental samples.

In this work, two analytical methodologies by Capillary Electrophoresis were developed. The first one enabled the rapid and cost-effective enantioseparation of prothioconazole and was applied to the analysis of prothioconazole-based commercial agrochemical formulations. The second methodology enabled the simultaneous enantioseparation of prothioconazole and its metabolite prothioconazole-desthio and was applied to degradation studies of both compounds in soil and sand samples. The influence of several experimental variables was investigated to develop both methodologies. The separation of prothioconazole enantiomers was achieved in 4.5 min with a resolution of 2.8 employing a neutral cyclodextrin (heptakis(2,3,6-tri-O-methyl)-ß-cyclodextrin). Given the nature of prothioconazole-desthio, a neutral cyclodextrin cannot be used for its chiral separation. For this reason, the simultaneous enantioseparation of prothioconazole and prothioconazole-desthio was achieved in 5.5 min with resolution values of 1.9 and 8.2, respectively, using a negatively charged cyclodextrin (sulfated-γ-cyclodextrin). The analytical characteristics of the developed methodologies were evaluated and both methods showed good performance to be applied to the quantitation of the enantiomers of prothioconazole in commercial agrochemical formulations (LOD 0.7 mg L-1) and to carry out degradation studies for both compounds in environmental matrices (LODs lower than 0.9 and 1.3 mg L-1 for prothioconazole and prothioconazole-desthio enantiomers, respectively). The recovery values obtained were in the range between 94-104 % for the agrochemical formulations, between 96-99 % for the sand samples and between 97-100 % for the soil samples.

Comprehensive metabolomic study of the response of HK-2 cells to hyperglycemic hypoxic diabetic-like milieu.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease. Although hyperglycaemia has been determined as the most important risk factor, hypoxia also plays a relevant role in the development of this disease. In this work, a comprehensive metabolomic study of the response of HK-2 cells, a human cell line derived from normal proximal tubular epithelial cells, to hyperglycemic, hypoxic diabetic-like milieu has been performed. Cells simultaneously exposed to high glucose (25 mM) and hypoxia (1% O2) were compared to cells in control conditions (5.5 mM glucose/18.6% O2) at 48 h. The combination of advanced metabolomic platforms (GC-TOF MS, HILIC- and CSH-QExactive MS/MS), freely available metabolite annotation tools, novel databases and libraries, and stringent cut-off filters allowed the annotation of 733 metabolites intracellularly and 290 compounds in the extracellular medium. Advanced bioinformatics and statistical tools demonstrated that several pathways were significantly altered, including carbohydrate and pentose phosphate pathways, as well as arginine and proline metabolism. Other affected metabolites were found in purine and lipid metabolism, the protection against the osmotic stress and the prevention of the activation of the ß-oxidation pathway. Overall, the effects of the combined exposure of HK-cells to high glucose and hypoxia are reasonably compatible with previous in vivo works.

Isolation of proteins from spent coffee grounds. Polyphenol removal and peptide identification in the protein hydrolysates by RP-HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF.

Several works have been focused on the extraction of polysaccharides, polyphenols and caffeine from spent coffee grounds (SCG) and their application in food formulations, but the peptide bioactivity from SCG protein hydrolysates has never been addressed. In the present work and for the first time, two different methods to isolate proteins from SCG have been compared, demonstrating that a urea-based extraction buffer provides a higher yield. This extraction method was then applied to compare the protein content in SCG from different coffee-brewing preparations, showing a higher protein content in SCG from espresso coffee machines. In addition, a polyphenol extraction step to remove interferences has been evaluated and the hydrolysis of the extracted proteins using alcalase and thermolysin enzymes has been compared. The effect of roasting degree on the antioxidant and in vitro angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity has been evaluated. The results show that the ACE-inhibitory activity is higher when SCG proteins are obtained from medium and dark roasted coffees and then hydrolyzed with thermolysin. Finally, the peptides contained in these hydrolysates have been identified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled via electrospray ionization to a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (RP-HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF).

Chiral Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography.

The potential of Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography to achieve enantiomeric separations is reviewed in this article. The separation principles and the most frequently employed separation strategies to achieve chiral separations by Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography are described. The use of chiral micellar systems alone or combined with other micellar systems or chiral selectors, as well as of mixtures of achiral micellar systems with chiral selectors is discussed together with the effect of different additives present in the separation medium. Indirect methods based on the derivatization of analytes with chiral derivatizing reagents and the use of achiral micelles are also considered. Preconcentration techniques employed to improve sensitivity and the main approaches developed to facilitate the coupling with Mass Spectrometry are included. The most recent and relevant methodologies developed by chiral Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography and their applications in different fields are presented.

Time-series proteomic study of the response of HK-2 cells to hyperglycemic, hypoxic diabetic-like milieu.

During diabetes, renal proximal tubular cells (PTC) are exposed to a combination of high glucose and hypoxic conditions, which plays a relevant role in the development of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). In this work, a time-series proteomic study was performed to analyse the effect of a diabetic-like microenvironment induced changes on HK-2 cells, a human cell line derived from normal proximal tubular epithelial cells. Cells simultaneously exposed to high glucose (25 mM) and hypoxia (1% O2) were compared to cells in control conditions for up to 48 h. Diabetic conditions increased the percentage of death cells after 24 and 48 h, but no differences in the protein/cell ratio were found. The relative protein quantification using dimethyl-labeling and UHPLC-MS/MS analysis allowed the identification of 317, 296 and 259 proteins at 5, 24 and 48 h, respectively. The combination of statistical and time expression profile analyses indicated an increased expression of proteins involved in glycolysis, and a decrease of cytoskeletal-related proteins. The exposure of HK-2 cells to high glucose and hypoxia reproduces some of the effects of diabetes on PTC and, with the limitations inherent to in vitro studies, propose new mechanisms and targets to be considered in the management of DKD.

Enantiomeric determination of econazole and sulconazole by electrokinetic chromatography using hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin combined with ionic liquids based on L-lysine and L-glutamic acid.

Two analytical methodologies based on the combined use of hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin and two different amino acid-based chiral ionic liquids (tetrabutylammonium-L-lysine or tetrabutylammonium-L-glutamic acid) in electrokinetic chromatography were developed in this work to perform the enantioselective determination of econazole and sulconazole in pharmaceutical formulations. The influence of different experimental variables such as buffer concentration, applied voltage, nature and concentration of the ionic liquid, temperature and injection time, on the enantiomeric separation was investigated. The combination of hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin and tetrabutylammonium-L-lysine under the optimized conditions enabled to achieve the enantiomeric determination of both drugs with high enantiomeric resolution (3.5 for econazole and 2.4 for sulconazole). The analytical characteristics of the developed methodologies were evaluated in terms of linearity, precision, LOD, LOQ and recovery showing good performance for the determination of both drugs which were successfully quantitated in pharmaceutical formulations. This work reports the first analytical methodology enabling the enantiomeric determination of sulconazole in pharmaceutical formulations.

Untargeted HILIC-MS-Based Metabolomics Approach to Evaluate Coffee Roasting Process: Contributing to an Integrated Metabolomics Multiplatform.

An untargeted metabolomics strategy using hydrophilic interaction chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) was developed in this work enabling the study of the coffee roasting process. Green coffee beans and coffee beans submitted to three different roasting degrees (light, medium, and strong) were analyzed. Chromatographic separation was carried out using water containing 10 mM ammonium formate with 0.2 % formic acid (mobile phase A) and acetonitrile containing 10 mM ammonium formate with 0.2 % formic acid (mobile phase B). A total of 93 molecular features were considered from which 31 were chosen as the most statistically significant using variable in the projection values. 13 metabolites were tentatively identified as potential biomarkers of the coffee roasting process using this metabolomic platform. Results obtained in this work were complementary to those achieved using orthogonal techniques such as reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (RPLC-MS) and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) since only one metabolite was found to be common between HILIC-MS and RPLC-MS platforms (caffeoylshikimic acid isomer) and other between HILIC-MS and CE-MS platforms (choline). On the basis of these results, an untargeted metabolomics multiplatform is proposed in this work based on the integration of the three orthogonal techniques as a powerful tool to expand the coverage of the roasted coffee metabolome.

A Non-Targeted Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry Strategy to Study Metabolic Differences in an In vitro Model of High-Glucose Induced Changes in Human Proximal Tubular HK-2 Cells.

Diabetic nephropathy is characterized by the chronic loss of kidney function due to high glucose renal levels. HK-2 proximal tubular cells are good candidates to study this disease. The aim of this work was to study an in vitro model of high glucose-induced metabolic alterations in HK-2 cells to contribute to the pathogenesis of this diabetic complication. An untargeted metabolomics strategy based on CE-MS was developed to find metabolites affected under high glucose conditions. Intracellular and extracellular fluids from HK-2 cells treated with 25 mM glucose (high glucose group), with 5.5 mM glucose (normal glucose group), and with 5.5 mM glucose and 19.5 mM mannitol (osmotic control group) were analyzed. The main changes induced by high glucose were found in the extracellular medium where increased levels of four amino acids were detected. Three of them (alanine, proline, and glutamic acid) were exported from HK-2 cells to the extracellular medium. Other affected metabolites include Amadori products and cysteine, which are more likely cause and consequence, respectively, of the oxidative stress induced by high glucose in HK-2 cells. The developed CE-MS platform provides valuable insight into high glucose-induced metabolic alterations in proximal tubular cells and allows identifying discriminative molecules of diabetic nephropathy.

Enantiomeric separation of ivabradine by cyclodextrin-electrokinetic chromatography. Effect of amino acid chiral ionic liquids.

A chiral methodology was developed for the first time to ensure the quality control of ivabradine, a novel anti-ischemic and heart rate lowering drug commercialized as a pure enantiomer. With this aim, electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) was employed and the enantiomeric separation of ivabradine was investigated using different anionic and neutral cyclodextrins (CDs) and amino acid-based chiral ionic liquids (CILs) as sole chiral selectors. Baseline separation was only achieved with sulfated CDs, and the best enantiomeric resolution was obtained with sulfated-γ-CD. Under the optimized conditions, ivabradine enantiomers were separated in 6 min with a resolution of 2.7. Nuclear magnetic resonance experiments showed a 1:1 stoichiometry for the enantiomer-CD complexes and apparent and averaged equilibrium constants were determined. The combined use of sulfated-γ-CD and different CILs as dual separation systems was investigated, resulting in a significant increase in the resolution. The use of 5 mM tetrabutylammonium-aspartic acid ([TBA][L-Asp]) in 50 mM formate buffer (pH 2.0) containing 4 mM sulfated-γ-CD were considered the best conditions in terms of resolution and migration times for ivabradine enantiomers. Nevertheless, as no inversion of the enantiomer migration order was observed when combining CILs and sulfated-γ-CD and a good enantiomeric resolution and efficiency were obtained using just sulfated-γ-CD as the sole chiral selector, the analytical characteristics of this method were evaluated, showing good recovery (98% and 103% for S- and R-ivabradine, respectively) and precision values (RSD < 5% for instrumental repeatability, < 6% for method repeatability and < 7% for intermediate precision). The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.22 and 0.28 µg mL-1 for S- and R-ivabradine, respectively, and the method enabled to detect a 0.1% of the enantiomeric impurity, allowing to accomplish the requirements of the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. Finally, the method was applied to the analysis of a pharmaceutical formulation of ivabradine. The content of R-ivabradine was below the LOD and the amount of S-ivabradine was in agreement to the labeled content.

Chiral Analysis of Non-Protein Amino Acids by Capillary Electrophoresis.

A high number of non-protein amino acids are chiral compounds that have demonstrated to be relevant in different fields. Their determination enables to obtain valuable information related to food quality and safety and has also a high interest from a biological point of view since many of them are key compounds in metabolic pathways or are related with different pathologies.In the development of analytical methodologies to perform chiral separations, capillary electrophoresis (CE) is well-established and one of the most powerful separation techniques as a consequence of its high efficiency, short analysis time, and versatility.This chapter shows, by means of three interesting examples, the application of different CE methodologies to the chiral analysis of non-protein amino acids. The first example describes different electrokinetic chromatography (EKC)-UV methodologies based on the use of negatively charged cyclodextrins as chiral selectors to carry out the stereoselective separation of ten different non-protein amino acids of relevance from a biological or food analysis point of view. The second method illustrates the EKC-UV analysis of L-citrulline and its enantiomeric impurity in food supplements using sulfated-γ-cyclodextrin as chiral selector. The last example shows the simultaneous enantiomeric separation of 3,4-dihydroxy-DL-phenylalanine and all the other chiral constituents involved in the phenylalanine-tyrosine metabolic pathway by using an EKC-MS methodology.

Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry metabolic fingerprinting of green and roasted coffee.

The aim of this work was to develop a capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-ESI-QToF-MS) method to carry out the metabolic fingerprinting of green and roasted coffee samples (Arabica variety). To evaluate changes in the metabolic profiles of coffee occurring along the roasting process, green coffee beans were submitted to different roasting degrees. The effect of different parameters concerning the electrophoretic separation (background electrolyte, temperature, voltage, and injection time), the MS detection (temperature and flow of drying gas, sheath gas of jet stream temperature, and capillary, fragmentator, nozzle, skimmer, and octapole voltages) and the sheath liquid (composition and flow rate) was studied to achieve an adequate separation and to obtain the largest number of molecular features. The analyses were carried out in positive ESI mode allowing to detect highly polar cationic metabolites present in coffee beans. Non-supervised and supervised multivariate analyses were performed showing a good discrimination among the different coffee groups. Those features having a high variable importance in the projection values on supervised analyses were selected as significant metabolites for their identification. Thus, 13 compounds were proposed as potential markers of the coffee roasting process, being 7 of them tentatively identified and 2 of them unequivocally identified. Different families of compounds such as pyridines, pyrroles, betaines, or indoles could be pointed out as markers of the coffee roasting process.