Investigations on the chromatographic behaviour of zwitterionic stationary phases used in hydrophilic interaction chromatography.

Two commercial stationary phases possessing a sulfobetaine zwitterionic bonded ligand (ZIC-HILIC and Nucleodur HILIC) were compared under hydrophilic interaction chromatographic (HILIC) conditions. First of all, the separation of 12 model compounds chosen among neurotransmitters and presenting a diversity of ionization states (anionic, cationic and zwitterionic) was studied under varied operating conditions. The effects of the percentage of acetonitrile, ammonium acetate concentration and temperature of the mobile phase were compared on the two columns. Secondly, a generally applicable retention model was established, based on chromatographic retention data (logk) acquired for 76 model compounds. The chosen compounds are small molecules presenting a wide diversity of molecular structures and are relevant to biomedical and pharmaceutical studies. To account for their retention behaviour, a modified version of the solvation parameter model was designed: two additional molecular descriptors were introduced, to account for ionic interactions with anionic and cationic species. The retention equations obtained allow a rationalization of the interactions contributing to retention and separation in the HILIC systems considered.

Evaluation of fused-core and monolithic versus porous silica-based C18 columns and porous graphitic carbon for ion-pairing liquid chromatography analysis of catecholamines and related compounds.

This paper evaluates the performances of reversed-phase (RPLC) and ion-pairing chromatography (IPLC) coupled with UV detection for the analysis of a set of 12 catecholamines and related compounds. Different chromatographic columns (porous C18-silica, perfluorinated C18-silica, porous graphitic carbon, monolithic and fused-core silica-based C18 columns) were tested using semi-long perfluorinated carboxylic acids as volatile ion-pairing reagents. Much more promising results were obtained by IPLC than by RPLC and important improvements in analytes peak symmetry and separation resolution were observed when using the "fast chromatography" columns (monolithic and fused-core C18) under IPLC conditions. For UV detection, a satisfactory separation of the 12 selected analytes was achieved in less than 20 min by using a fused-core particles column (Halo C18) and a mobile phase composed of a 1.25 mM nonafluoropentanoic acid aqueous solution and methanol under gradient elution mode. The chromatographic method developed can be directly coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) in positive ionization mode and 10 solutes among those selected can be observed. The presence of the acidic ion-pairing reagent in the mobile phase makes this system incompatible with negative ionization mode and thus unable to detect the two acidic compounds that only responded in negative mode. In terms of MS detection, Monolithic C18 column proved to be the best one to reach the lowest detection limits (LODs) (from 0.5 ngmL(-1) to 10 ngmL(-1) depending on the neurotransmitter). The applicability of the optimized LC-MS/MS method to a "real world" sample was finally evaluated. The presence of the matrix leads to signal suppression for several solutes and thus to higher LODs.

Approach to hydrophilic interaction chromatography column selection: application to neurotransmitters analysis.

This paper presents the comparison between 12 hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography columns that are commercially available. The main factors influencing the retention and selectivity toward 12 neurotransmitters for these different HILIC systems have been studied. For additional information, the retention data have been analyzed statistically by factor analysis. Principal component analyses (PCA) were calculated to evidence different separation behaviour between the stationary phases, based on the retention data measured for three compound classes: anionic acidic compounds, cationic basic compounds and zwitterionic amino acids. Finally, a generic procedure is suggested for optimization of HILIC analyses, depending on the ionization state of the analytes.

Development of a LC-MS/MS method to monitor palmitoyl peptides content in anti-wrinkle cosmetics.

Palmitoyl peptides are anti-aging agents widely used in cosmetics. This article describes the development of a LC-MS/MS analytical procedure that allows, after a liquid-liquid extraction procedure, their unambiguous detection in cosmetic formulation. MS/MS detection is shown to be specific regarding placebo formulations. Limits of quantification, linearity, accuracy and precision of the method were estimated. The results presented show that palmitoyl peptides can be thus reliably assayed. The palmitoylated pentapeptide palmitoyl-lysyl-threonyl-threonyl-lysyl-serine (pal-KTTKS) was assayed in anti-wrinkle creams using palmitoyl-glycyl-histidyl-lysine (pal-GHK) as internal standard. From the results obtained, the influence of the formulation on pal-KTTKS availability is evidenced.