Lincosamides detection

Nucleotidylation - the addition of adenylate-residues by Lnu enzymes - can also be the cause of resistance to lincosamide antibiotics in staphylococci and enterococci. A plasmid encoded ADP-ribosylating transferase (Arr-2) that leads to rifampicin resistance has been detected in various Enterobacteriaceae as well as in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. 

In liquid chromatographic analysis of macrolides and lincosamides, most popular is the ultraviolet detector (Table 29.4). Tylosin, tilmicosin, spiramycin, sedecamycin, and josamycin exhibit relatively strong ultraviolet absorption, but erythromycin, lincomycin, pirlimycin, and oleandomycin show extremely weak absorption in the ultraviolet region. Hence, detection at 200-210 nm has been reported for the determination of lincomycin (146). However, a combination of poor sensitivity and interference from coextractives necessitated extensive cleanup and concentration of the extract. Precolumn derivatization of pirlimycin with 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate has also been described to impart a chromophore for ultraviolet detection at 264 nm (140). 

Electrochemical detection is better suited to the analysis of erythromycin and lincomycin. This method of detection has been applied for the determination of erythromycin A (139) and lincomycin (154) residues in salmon tissues. Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry is particularly suitable for confirmatory analysis of the nonvolatile macrolides and lincosamides. Typical applications of this technique are through thermospray mass spectrometry, which has been used to monitor pirlimycin in bovine milk and liver (141,142), and chemical ionization, which has been applied for identification of tilmicosin (151) in bovine muscle, and for identification of spiramycin, tylosin, tilmicosin, erythromycin, and josamycin residues in the same tissue (150). 

In 2008, Carretero et al. described a multi-class method for the analysis of 31 antibacterials (including f)-lactams, macrolides, lincosamides, quinolones, sulfonamides, tetracyclines, nitroimidazoles, and trimethoprim) in meat samples by PLE-LC-MS/MS. Meat samples were homogenized and blended with EDTA-washed sand, then extracted with water by applying 1500 psi (Ib/in. ), at 70°C. One extraction cycle was 10 min. A drawback of the method is the large volumes of extracts (40 ml) obtained, which required evaporation to concentrate the extract volume prior to final analysis. This evaporation step considerably increases the time required for sample preparation. The proposed method has been applied to the analysis of 152 samples of cattle and pig tissues, with the presence of quinolones, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides detected in 15% of the samples, although at concentrations below the MRLs. 

As a result of these observations, recommendations have been made to include an incubation step in methods of analysis for lincosamides in liver. " If the aim is to detect lincosamide use, then inclusion of an incubation step is necessary to maximize the possibility of detection. However, as indicated earlier, MRLs, where set, are based on the parent compound only with no reference to the metabolites, either by summation of separate measurements or by conversion to a suitable marker. Thus, inclusion of an incubation step could lead to falsely high residue concentrations and the possibility of samples that fall within the legal limits being reported as non-compliant. As a result, analytically, steps should be taken to minimize enzymatic activity to prevent this reverse metabolism. A long-term solution to this issue might be to include the sulfoxides in the legislation as additional markers in some form. 

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