Rapid pharmacokinetic screening of salbutamol in plasma samples by column-switching high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometry.

In order to obtain pharmacokinetic data from studies in humans, a sensitive and selective assay for the quantification of salbutamol in human plasma samples was required. This report describes an automated high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry assay with pre-column enrichment using internal standard calibration for the quantification of salbutamol and the validation of the assay. The lower limit of quantitation is 0.2 ng/ml with an accuracy and imprecision of less than 7%. The analysis time is 8 min per sample.

N-terminal amino-acid sequence of beta-lactamase from Shigella flexneri UCSF-129.

A beta-lactamase (EC 3.5.2.6 penicillinase, penicillin amino beta-lactam-hydrolase) was purified from Shigella flexneri USCF-129 by an efficient two-stage procedure involving chromatography in Sephadex G-75 and HPLC on a C18-reverse phase column. The homogeneity of the purified enzyme was confirmed by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), HPLC electrospray mass spectrometry (LC-ESMS) and amino acid sequence analyses. The highly purified enzyme was a monomeric protein with a molecular mass of 28.903 +/- 2 Da, as determined by LC-ESMS. The amino acid sequence of the first 49 N-terminal residues of this beta-lactamase revealed 100% similarity with the mature forms of the plasmid coded Escherichia coli enzymes (plasmid pBR 322 and R6K) a TEM-type beta-lactamase.

Analysis of double-stranded oligonucleotides by electrospray mass spectrometry.

Double-stranded oligonucleotides of different lengths and chemical modification have been analyzed by ion spray mass spectrometry. The non-covalent-bonded duplexes can be detected. Therefore, ion spray mass spectrometry is a useful method for investigation of hybridizations of natural and chemically modified oligonucleotides. Since the exact mass of the double strand can be detected, this method can distinguish between specific and nonspecific interaction.

Detection and identification of human urinary metabolites of biantrazole (CI-941).

The anthrapyrazole derivative biantrazole (7-hydroxy-2-[2-[(2-hydroxyethyl)amino]ethyl]-5-[[2-[(2- hydroxyethyl)amino]ethyl]amino]-anthra[1,9-cd]pyrazol-6(2H)-one dihydrochloride, CI-941) is currently under clinical investigation for the treatment of breast cancer. Up to now, pharmacokinetic data of the drug were acquired using an HPLC assay lacking the capability to detect and separate metabolites of CI-941. Therefore an HPLC separation procedure was developed that is compatible with the ionization methods used most frequently for coupling to mass spectrometry. Application of the HPLC analysis to the urine of a patient treated with biantrazole clearly demonstrated the presence of two more polar metabolites. The molecular masses of the metabolites were determined during an HPLC-MS coupling with ionspray ionization after injection of an extract of only 15 ml of patient urine. Both metabolites have the same UV-VIS spectra as biantrazole and exhibit collision-induced mass spectra typical for aminoalkylamino-substituted anthrapyrazoles. The daughter ion mass spectra acquired during the HPLC separation allowed the identification of the chemical structures of both metabolites. Metabolite 1 was identified as the oxidation product of CI-941 with both side chains oxidized at the hydroxymethylene groups to the corresponding dicarboxylic acid derivative, whereas metabolite 2 was shown to be the analogous monooxidation product. However, the unsymmetrical molecular structure of CI-941 did not allow us to distinguish between two possible isomers of metabolite 2. Quantitation of the drug and its metabolites in patient urine collected during a time period of 100 hr showed that 0.55% of the dose were excreted as metabolite 1, 0.34% of the dose as metabolite 2, and 7.8% of the dose as unchanged drug.

Selection of anthocyanin-accumulating potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cell lines from calli derived from seedlings produced by gamma-irradiated seeds.

Callus cell lines of potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Zarevo) were obtained from seedlings germinated from gamma-irradiated seeds (200 Gy). Some of these cell lines produce red-violet pigments which were identified as acylated anthocyanins. The major anthocyanin was determined to be peonidin 3-O-[6-O-(4-O-E-p-coumaroyl-rhamnosyl)-glucoside]-5-O-glucoside ("peonanin"). Single cell-derived protoclones from non-pigmented protoplasts sometimes also gave rise to pigmented cell clusters thus indicating that the changes in the expression of the anthocyanin pathway can also occur after the stage of initial callus induction.