Determination of heterocyclic aromatic amines in ashes from biomass burning by UHPLC-MS/MS after ultrasound-assisted dispersive solid-liquid microextraction

Understanding the heterocyclic aromatic amines: An overview and recent findings

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) constitute a group of highly toxic organic compounds strongly associated with the onset of various types of cancer. This paper aims to serve as a valuable resource for food scientists working towards a better understanding of these compounds including formation, minimizing strategies, analysis, and toxicity as well as addressing existing gaps in the literature. Despite extensive research conducted on these compounds since their discovery, several aspects remain inadequately understood, necessitating further investigation. These include their formation pathways, toxic mechanisms, effective mitigation strategies, and specific health effects on humans. Nonetheless, recent research has yielded promising results, contributing significantly to our understanding of HAAs by proposing new potential formation pathways and innovative strategies for their reduction.

Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines and Risk of Kidney Stones: A Cross-Sectional Study in US Adults

Background

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are a group of harmful substances produced while cooking meat at high temperatures. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between HAAs and the occurrence of kidney stones.

Methods

Data on the level of four HAAs, including 2-Amino-9H-pyrido [2, 3-b] indole (A-α-C), 1-Methyl-9H-pyrido [3, 4-b] indole (Harman), 9H-Pyrido [3, 4-b] indole (Norharman), and 2-Amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4, 5-b] pyridine (PhIP), in the urine from adult participants were extracted from the 2013–2014 NHANES database. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to balance confounding variables between the stone former and non-stone former groups, and logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between HAAs and the occurrence of kidney stones.

Results

Of the 1,558 eligible participants, a history of kidney stones was self-reported by 140 (9.0%). Compared to non-stone formers, stone formers had higher concentrations of A-α-C, Harman, and Norharman and lower concentrations of PhlP in urine. After adjusting for all other confounding variables, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the high-Harman group had a higher risk of kidney stones than the low-Harman group [adjusted odds ratios (aOR) = 1.618, 95% CI: 1.076–2.433, p = 0.021]. After PSM analysis, Harman concentration remained a risk factor for kidney stones (high-Harman group vs. low-Harman group: aOR = 1.951, 95% CI: 1.059–3.596, p = 0.032).

Conclusion

Increased urinary Harman concentrations are associated with an increased risk of kidney stones in the general US population.

The use of ultrasound in the South Cone region. Advances in organic and inorganic synthesis and in analytical methods

In organic and inorganic synthesis and in analytical methods, an external conventional heat source is usually applied to carry out a chemical reaction at a high temperature, or an extraction procedure. In the last decades, the use of ultrasound as an alternative energy source has become an interesting field of research in these topics in the South Cone region (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Paraguay). For this reason, the present review, covering the period 2009 to mid-2021, is a compilation of ultrasound-assisted synthetic and analytical methodologies.

Long-term exposure to 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline can trigger a potential risk of Parkinson's disease

Humans are exposed to heterocyclic amines (HCAs) from a wide range of sources, such as protein-rich thermally processed foods, cigarette smoke, contaminated river water, the atmosphere, soil, and forest fire ash. Although the carcinogenic and mutagenic hazards of HCAs have been widely studied, the potential neurotoxicity of these compounds still needs to be further elucidated. Here, we studied the neurotoxicity of the HCA 2-amino-3-methylimidazole[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) in vivo by utilizing a zebrafish model. After 35 days of exposure at 8, 80, and 800 ng/mL, zebrafish exploratory behavior and locomotor activity were significantly inhibited, and light/dark preference behaviors were also disturbed. Moreover, the expression of Parkinson's disease (PD)-related genes and proteins, dopamine-related genes, neuroplasticity-related genes, antioxidant enzyme genes and inflammatory cytokine genes in the zebrafish brain was significantly affected. The numbers of NeuN neurons in the midbrain were decreased in exposed zebrafish, while the numbers of apoptotic cells were increased. In summary, our research suggests that IQ is neurotoxic and significantly associated with PD and that long-term exposure to IQ may contribute to PD risk. This risk may be related to IQ-mediated effects on mitochondrial homeostasis and induction of oxidative stress and inflammation.

High-throughput quantification of eighteen heterocyclic aromatic amines in roasted and pan-fried meat on the basis of high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry

Triple quadrupole mass spectrometry has been the main technique for HAAs analysis in recent decade, while it requires extensive optimization of compound-dependent parameters. A novel method based on HPLC-Q-Orbitrap-HRMS was developed firstly for simultaneous determination of eighteen HAAs. Extraction and purification conditions were optimized and the developed method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy and precision. Results indicated eighteen HAAs and two internal standards could be separated in 12 min using a gradient elution program. The full MS/dd-MS² scan was adopted for analysis, which indicated favorable recoveries (71.3-114.8%) along with LODs and LOQs in the ranges of 0.02-0.6 and 0.05-2.0 μg/kg, respectively. Internal standards used for calibration could effectively reduce quantification errors produced by matrix effects. The validated method was successfully applied for HAAs analysis in roasted and pan-fried meat and was confirmed to be an alternative method when triple quadrupole mass spectrometry is absent in lab.

Development of a green and efficient methodology for the heterocyclic aromatic amine determination in biomass samples generated from cigarette combustion and tobacco

A green methodology was developed for the analysis of ten heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) in biomass samples from cigarette combustion such as mainstream smoke, paper ashes, as well as tobacco and paper wraps. The cellulose filter used for sample collection was also evaluated. This strategy was based on ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) associated with a solid-phase extraction procedure employing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-SPE) as a cleanup step followed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Under optimal experimental conditions, the linearity of the method was in the range from 0.08 to 160 ng cig-1, with correlation coefficients (R2) higher than 0.991. The limits of detection resulted to be between 0.03 and 0.63 ng cig-1. Concentrations of the HAAs in the mainstream smoke were from 5.7 to 145.2 ng cig-1 and in paper ashes from 0.1 to 0.6 ng cig -1, while in tobacco were between 1.0 and 38.5 ng cig-1. Meanwhile, no HAA contribution was observed in the case of paper wraps and the filter used for sample collection. The knowledge of the presence and the concentration levels of the selected HAAs in each cigarette's physical component after its combustion is essential to understand the formation processes and contribution during cigarette burning. Besides, this is the first report about the presence of some HAAs in the proposed samples. Finally, a comparative study was employed to classify the sustainability of several recent approaches for HAA extraction from cigarette combustion samples using Green Certificate as a metric tool.

A novel magnetic solid-phase extraction method for detection of 14 heterocyclic aromatic amines by UPLC-MS/MS in meat products

The current study developed a cheap and effective method for the simultaneous extraction of 14 heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) in food matrix. Core-shell Fe₃O₄@PDA nanoparticles were constructed and acted as the magnetic solid-phase extraction adsorbent to separate and purify HAAs from meat products for the first time. Then, UPLC-MS/MS technique was employed to identify and quantify the HAAs easily. Fe₃O₄@PDA nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized successfully. Totally 14 HAAs were completely separated in 19.99 min with good regression coefficients. LODs and LOQs were in the range of 0.013-0.247 ng/g and 0.056-0.803 ng/g, respectively. The intra-day precisions and inter-day precisions were below 9%. Except for IQ[4,5-b], Phe-p-1, PhIP, other 11 types of HAAs (DMIP, 1,5,6-TMIP, IQ, IQx, MeIQ, MeIQx, 7,8-DiMeIQx, AαC, MeAαC, Harman, Norharman) could acquire relatively high recoveries (71.06%-108.49%). The proposed method was successfully devoted to the evaluation of HAAs levels in 8 commercial meat products to verify the adaptability.

Volcanic ashes as a source for nitrated and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollution

In this study, a novel, simple, and highly sensitive analytical procedure for the quantitative evaluation of oxygenated and nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in volcanic ash samples based on dispersive solid-liquid microextraction (DSLME) coupled to ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was developed. Diverse chemometric tools were applied to optimize DSLME working conditions. Thus, a linear calibration curve for all the target analytes in the concentration range from 0.01 to 100 μg g^-1 (r² > 0.994) was obtained. The limits of detection for all the compounds were between 14.6 and 56.0 pg g^-1, with high reproducibility (relative standard deviation (RSD) was below 8.1% for all the analytes). Additionally, recoveries ranged from 94.2 to 100%. The applicability of the method was evaluated and the feasibility of the existence of nitrated and oxygenated-PAHs in volcanic ashes at ultra-trace levels was demonstrated, which reveals an unknown source of distribution of these pollutants to the environment. Graphical Abstract.