Liquid chromatography-mass ionization modes

A liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method that can quantitatively analyze urinar y normal and modified nucleosides in less than 30 min with a good resolution and sufficient sensitivity has been developed. Nineteen kinds of normal and modified nucleosides were determined in urine samples from 10 healthy persons and 18 breast cancer patients. Compounds were separ ated on a reverse phase Kromasil C18 column (2.1 mm I.D.) by isocratic elution mode using 20 mg/1 ammonium acetate - acetonitrile (97 3 % v/v) at 200 p.l/min. A higher sensitivity was obtained in positive atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mode APCI(-i-). 

The method for chloroacetanilide soil metabolites in water determines concentrations of ethanesulfonic acid (ESA) and oxanilic acid (OXA) metabolites of alachlor, acetochlor, and metolachlor in surface water and groundwater samples by direct aqueous injection LC/MS/MS. After injection, compounds are separated by reversed-phase HPLC and introduced into the mass spectrometer with a TurboIonSpray atmospheric pressure ionization (API) interface. Using direct aqueous injection without prior SPE and/or concentration minimizes losses and greatly simplifies the analytical procedure. Standard addition experiments can be used to check for matrix effects. With multiple-reaction monitoring in the negative electrospray ionization mode, LC/MS/MS provides superior specificity and sensitivity compared with conventional liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) or liquid chromatography/ultraviolet detection (LC/UV), and the need for a confirmatory method is eliminated. In summary,... 

LC/MS/MS. LC/MS/MS is used for separation and quantitation of the metabolites. Using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in the negative ion electrospray ionization (ESI) mode, LC/MS/MS gives superior specificity and sensitivity to conventional liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) techniques. The improved specificity eliminates interferences typically found in LC/MS or liquid chro-matography/ultraviolet (LC/UV) analyses. Data acquisition is accomplished with a data system that provides complete instmment control of the mass spectrometer. 

Coupling of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry can provide unequivocal on-line spectrometric identification of anthelminthic residues in animal-derived foods. Typical applications of such techniques include the confirmation of moxidectin residues in cattle fat by liquid chromatography-thermospray mass spectrometry (352), and the confirmation of eprinomectin residues in bovine liver tissue by liquid chromatography, electrospray ionization, and multiple reaction monitoring in the MS-MS mode with positive ion detection (370). 

To establish a sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (time-of-flight) [LC-MS (TOF)] method for the determination of donepezil in human plasma after an oral administration of 5 mg donepezil hydrochloride tablet [29]. Alkalized plasma was extracted with isopropa-nol-n-hexane (3 97) and loratadine was used as internal standard (IS). Solutes were separated on a Cis column with a mobile phase of metha-nokacetate buffer (pH 4.0) (80 20). Detection was performed on a TOF mass spectrometry equipped with an electrospray ionization interface and operated in positive-ionization mode. Donepezil quantitation was realized by computing the peak area ratio (donepezil-loratadine) (donepezil m/z 380 [M + H]+ and loratadine m/z 383[M + H]+) and comparing them with calibration curve (r = 0.9998). The linear calibration curve was obtained in the concentration range of 0.1-15 jUg/1. The detection limit of donepezil was 0.1 /zg/1. The average recovery was more than 90%. The intra- and inter-run precision was measured to be below 15% of RSD... 

A variety of MS formats are widely accepted and applied in the pharmaceutical industry. The specific MS application is often defined by the sample introduction technique. The pharmaceutical applications highlighted in this article feature two types of sample introduction techniques dynamic and static. Dynamic sample introduction involves the use of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on-line with MS. The resulting liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) format provides unique and enabling capabilities for pharmaceutical analysis. The electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) modes are the most widely used. Static sample introduction techniques primarily use matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). ... 

A method that uses high performance liquid chromatography/ mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) for the analysis of chlorinated phenoxyacid herbicides is described. During method development different techniques were used to increase both the sensitivity and the specificity of thermospray HPLC/MS for chlorinated acid herbicides. These included the operation of the instrument in the negative chemical ionization (NCI) mode initiated by discharge and the use of a wire-repeller in the ion source for efficient extraction of positive ions. Single quadrupole repeller-induced and multiple quadrupole collision activated dissociation (CAD) experiments were also performed to increase the structural information of the mass spectra. 

Figure 3 SPE-LC-APCI-MS chromatogram of 200 ml tap water spiked with 0.04 ng ml of pesticides and 0.05 ng ml IS tert-butylazine in positive-ion mode and dinoterb in negative-ion mode). Peak identification 1, bentazone 2, Vamidothion 3,4-nitrophenol 4, MCPA 5, mecoprop 6, dinoseb 7, atrazine 8, isoproturon 9, ametryn 10, malathion 11, fenotrothion 12, molinate 13, prometryn 14, terbutryn and 15, parathion-ethyl. (Reprinted with permission from Aguilar C, Ferrer I, Bormll F, Marce RM, and Barcelo D (1998) Comparison of automated on-line solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization and particle-beam mass spectrometry for the determination of a priority group of pesticides in environmental waters. Journal of Chromatography A 794 147-163 Elsevier.)...

Finally, the detection by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), which has been largely dependent on the price, mode of ionization, and ease of operation of the mass spectrometer, is becoming popular.It is predicted that LC/MS will become the method of choice for hpid analysis in coming years. 

The first method for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of TATP by APCI-MS was reported by Widmer et al. [59]. The atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) was operated in the positive ion mode and resulted in a TATP LOD of 100 pg/pL. A lower LOD, 3.3ng, has been reported for a method that couples HPLC with an APCI-MS/MS full-scan method [52]. The LOD was reduced to 0.8 ng when SRM was employed with quantitative analysis on ions m/z 223, 132, 91, and 74 [52]. Detection limits in the low nanogram range has been reported for TATP analyzed by desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI), a technology similar to DESI [27]. 

Traditional analytical methods to analyze amphetamines include gas chromatography-mass spectrometry where derivatization is often required to fecilitate analysis. Besides sample preparation issues, it has been demonstrated that injection port chemistry in the GC can lead to misleading results with some members of the amphetamine class. To circumvent these issues, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS) offers the promise of a simpler sample preparation procedure and fewer analytical concerns. This chapter describes an LC-MS/MS technique for the analysis of 14 ATSs in blood, serum/plasma, and urine. The method is quantitative and has reporting limits in the low ng/mL range. Electrospray ionization is used in the positive ion mode. Two transitions for each compound are monitored along with ion ratios. 

Schematic diagram of an orthogonal Q/TOF instrument. In this example, an ion beam is produced by electrospray ionization. The solution can be an effluent from a liquid chromatography column or simply a solution of an analyte. The sampling cone and the skimmer help to separate analyte ions from solvent, The RF hexapoles cannot separate ions according to m/z values and are instead used to help confine the ions into a narrow beam. The quadrupole can be made to operate in two modes. In one (wide band-pass mode), all of the ion beam passes through. In the other (narrow band-pass mode), only ions selected according to m/z value are allowed through. In narrow band-pass mode, the gas pressure in the middle hexapole is increased so that ions selected in the quadrupole are caused to fragment following collisions with gas molecules. In both modes, the TOF analyzer is used to produce the final mass spectrum.

GC = gas chromatography EC = electrochemical (detector ECD = electron capture (detector HCD = Hall conductivity detector HFBA = heptafluorobutyric anhydride HPLC = high performance liquid chromatography NCI-MS = mass spectrometry in the negative chemical ionization mode NPD = nitrogen-phosphorus detector ppb = parts per billion UV = ultraviolet absorption SPE = solid phase extraction wt wt = weight weight... 

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques are widely used for separation of phenolic compounds. Both reverse- and normal-phase HPLC methods have been used to separate and quantify PAs but have enjoyed only limited success. In reverse-phase HPLC, PAs smaller than trimers are well separated, while higher oligomers and polymers are co-eluted as a broad unresolved peak [8,13,37]. For our reverse-phase analyses, HPLC separation was achieved using a reverse phase. Cl8, 5 (Jtm 4.6 X 250 mm column (J. T. Baker, http //www.mallbaker.com/). Samples were eluted with a water/acetonitrile gradient, 95 5 to 30 70 in 65 min, at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The water was adjusted with acetic acid to a final concentration of 0.1%. All mass spectra were acquired using a Bruker Esquire LC-MS equipped with an electrospray ionization source in the positive mode. 

Lee KC, Chan W, Liang Z, Liu N, Zhao Z, Lee AW, Cai Z (2008) Rapid screening method for intact glucosinolates in Chinese medicinal herbs by using liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization ion trap mass spectrometry in negative ion mode. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 22 2825-2834... 

AmnaT et al. Determination and quantification of camptothecin in an endophytic fungus by liquid chromatography-positive mode electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry, Curr Sci 91 208—212, 2006. 

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