Direct biological samples

Kanda, T., Shirota, O., Ohtsu, Y., and Yamaguchi, M., Synthesis and characterization of polymer-coated mixed-functional stationary phases with several different hydrophobic groups for direct analysis of biological samples by liquid chromatography, /. Chromatogr. A, 722, 115, 1996. 

Liu, C. Hofstadler, S. A. Bresson, J. A. Udseth, H. R. Tsukuda, T. Smith, R. D. Synder, A. P. On-line dual microdialysis with ESI-MS for direct analysis of complex biological samples and microorganism lysates. Anal. Chem. 1998, 70, 1797-1801. 

The ProteinChip System from Ciphergen Biosystems uses patented SELDI (Surface-Enhanced Laser Desorption/Ionization) ProteinChip technology to rapidly perform the separation, detection, and analysis of proteins at the femtomole level directly from biological samples. ProteinChip Systems use ProteinChip Arrays which contain chemically (cationic, anionic, hydrophobic, hydrophilic, etc.) or biochemically (antibody, receptor, DNA, etc.) treated surfaces for specific interaction with proteins of interest. Selected washes create on-chip, high-resolution protein maps. This protein mass profile, or reten-tate map of the proteins bound to each of the ProteinChip Array surfaces, is quantitatively detected in minutes by the ProteinChip Reader. 

The most discriminating technique for proving the identity and purity of analyte peak of a chromatogram, especially for analyzing biological samples and natural products, is by using online LC-UV/MS or GC-MS/FTIR methods [15]. Alternatively, one could use a combination of TLC and MS, where direct determination on the TLC plates is made by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) [16]. 

The most common use of protein microarrays is in immunoassays. In particular, antibody-based immunoassays are the main stream of diagnostic assays due to their specificity. The assay usually runs in a multiplexed mode where the antibodies or other capture agents are immobilized and then exposed to a biological sample. There are four immunoassay formats direct binding, sandwich (ELISA), competitive, and displacement. Direct-binding and sandwich assays are the most common. There are some reports on the use of competitive assays and displacement assays, which are usually associated with high surface area/volume systems [72-76],... 

Han, X. and Gross, R.W. Global analysis of cellular lip-idomes directly from crude biological samples by ESI mass spectrometry a bridge to lipidomics. /. Lipid Res. 44 1071-1079, 2003. 

Recently, most of the methods which have been used for the analysis of valproic acid in plasma, serum, cerebral spinal fluid, saliva, breast milk, and urine involve acidification of the biological sample, extraction into an organic solvent, and direct injection onto a gas-liquid chromatographic column (28, 29, 16, 30, 31, 32,... 

Compared with LC/MS/MS methods, nanoelectrospray/MS/MS methods offer additional benefits such as no sample carry-over and low sample and solvent consumptions. The major concerns surrounding columnless analysis of biological samples are matrix ion suppression and direct interference from endogenous components or metabolites of the dosed compound. Therefore, an extensive sample clean-up process must be in place to ensure the accuracy and precision of the assay. A nine-fold gain in terms of sample throughput was achieved with a nanoelectrospray/MS/ MS method that produced accuracy, precision, and detection limits comparable to those of a traditional LC/MS/MS method.14... 

Direct injection of pretreated biological samples (also called online sample cleanup) greatly simplified sample preparation for LC/MS/MS analysis. The normal process involves sample aliquot steps, internal standard addition, and centrifugation. Compared to traditional off-line LLE and SPE sample preparation procedures, online methods are easier and faster. Two types of online SPE columns are commercially available. One is the restricted access media (RAM) column. The other is the turbulent flow chromatography (TFC) column. 

In addition to MALDI-TOF and LC-MS/MS, SELDI-TOF-MS can also be used to determine expression profiling of various biological samples, such as serum or plasma for early detection of infection. Serum proteomic profiling assay, for instance, has been used to distinguish patients with acute SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) from patients with fever and influenza with 100% accuracy [16]. A major limitation of SELDI-TOF-MS, however, is that it cannot be used for direct amino acid sequence identification of the biomarker proteins, necessitating further sample fractionation and protein purification. 

In contrast with the variety of methods of extraction of LAS from other solid samples (such as sediment, suspended solid, sludge) and water samples (see corresponding section), there are relatively few reports of attempts to extract LAS from biological samples [22-28]. Direct HPLC measurement of accumulation of LAS in rat liver lysosomes has been reported [29]. 

Vinyl alcohol copolymer gel is hydrophilic and has been developed for aqueous-phase size-exclusion liquid chromatography however, it is less polar than the polysaccharides. Its specificity permits the direct injection of a biological sample without deproteinization. For example, blood serum from a patient suffering from chronic nephritis has been injected directly as a measure of the degree of dialysis (Figure 3.17). Adenosine triphosphate, adenosine diphosphate, and adenosine monophosphate in red blood cells have also been separated directly (Figure 3.18). Theophylline in blood serum has been... 

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