Fast Diagnosis of Neonatal Phenylketonuria by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Following Microwave-Assisted Silylation

Microwave-assisted derivatization procedures for gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis

In this review, published applications of microwave-assisted derivatization procedures for gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) are summarized. Among the broad range of analytical techniques available, GC/MS is still the method of choice for most high-throughput screening procedures in forensic/clinical toxicology, doping control and food and environmental analysis. Despite the many advantages of the GC/MS method, time-consuming derivatization steps are often required in order to obtain desirable chromatographic characteristics or to improve the stability and detectability of the target analytes. These derivatization processes typically require reaction times from 30 min up to several hours at elevated temperature. In contrast, microwave protocols have demonstrated to be able to reduce the time required for derivatization to a few minutes, and can thus very effectively shorten the overall analysis time, in particular when carried out in a high-throughput format. Herein, the literature in this field is summarized and recent experimental techniques for performing parallel GC/MS derivatization protocols are discussed.

Development of C18-functionalized magnetic silica nanoparticles as sample preparation technique for the determination of ergosterol in cigarettes by microwave-assisted derivatization and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Ergosterol is one of the important precursors of tumorigenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. A large amount of ergosterol is present in mildewy cigarettes, which derives from fungal contaminations. In this paper, a novel approach based on C(18)-functionalized magnetic silica nanoparticles (C(18)-f-MS NPs) coupled with microwave-assisted derivatization and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was developed for the rapid enrichment and determination of ergosterol in cigarettes. Due to that, microwave-assisted derivatization requires very short time (several minutes), and the extraction and concentration of ergosterol become the key step in the sample preparation process. In this study, the prepared C(18)-f-MS NPs with its unique properties (high surface area and strong magnetism) provided an efficient way for extraction and concentration of ergosterol in the samples. Additionally, the analyte of ergosterol adsorbed with C(18)-f-MS NPs in cigarettes can be simply and rapidly isolated (only about 2s) through placing a strong magnet on the bottom of container. In this work, different parameters such as added amounts of C(18)-f-MS NPs, extraction temperature, and extraction time were optimized to enhance the extraction efficiency. Method validations (linear range, detection limit, precision, and recovery) were also studied. The results obtained by the optimal conditions showed that the proposed method based on C(18)-f-MS NPs was a simple, high efficient, and had a rapid approach for the enrichment of ergosterol in cigarettes and was successfully applied to the analysis of ergosterol in normal and mildewy cigarettes followed by microwave-assisted derivatization and GC/MS.

Microwave-assisted silylation followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for rapid determination of ergosterol in cigarettes

Ergosterol is one of the important precursors of tumorigenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. To the best of our knowledge, a large amount of ergosterol is present in moldy cigarettes, which derives from fungal contaminations. Thus, the development of a simple, fast, and efficient method for the analysis of ergosterol is in great demand. In this paper, GC/MS following microwave-assisted silylation (MAS) was developed for the rapid quantitative analysis of ergosterol in cigarettes for the first time. In our work, total ergosterol in cigarettes after NaOH saponification was extracted with hexane, and then was fast derivatized with bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) under microwave irradiation. Finally, the ergosterol trimethylsilyl derivative was analyzed by GC/MS. Derivatization conditions including microwave reaction solvent, irradiation time, and power were investigated. Method validations (linear range, LOD, precision, and recovery) were also studied. The results showed that the proposed method provided a fast, simple, and sensitive approach for the determination of ergosterol in cigarettes. Finally it was successfully applied to the analysis of ergosterol in normal and mildewy cigarettes.

Metabolic profiling technologies for biomarker discovery in biomedicine and drug development

The state-of-the-art of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and statistical tools for the acquisition and evaluation of complex multidimensional spectroscopic data in metabolic profiling is reviewed in this article. The continuous evolution of the sensitivity, precision and throughput has made these technologies powerful and extremely robust tools for application in systems biology, pharmaceutical and diagnostics research. Particular emphasis is also given to the collection and storage of biological samples that are subjected to metabolite profiling. Selected examples from preclinical and clinical applications are paradigmatically shown. These illustrate the power of the profiling technologies for characterizing the metabolic phenotype of healthy, diseased and treated subjects. The complexity of disease and drug treatment is asking for an adequate response by integrated and comprehensive metabolite profiling approaches that allow the discovery of new combinations of metabolic biomarkers.