Pharmaceutical analysis capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry

Geiser, L., Rudaz, S., and Veuthey, J. L. (2003). Validation of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry methods for the analysis of a pharmaceutical formulation. Electrophoresis 24, 3049-3056. 

Capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is a miniaturized separation technique that combines aspects of both interactive chromatography and capillary electrophoresis. In this chapter, the theory of CEC and the factors affecting separation such as the stationary phase and mobile phase parameters have been discussed. The chapter focuses on the types and preparation of columns for CEC and describes the progress made in the development of open-tubular, particle-packed, and monolithic columns. The detection techniques in CEC such as the traditional UV detection and improvements made in coupling with more sensitive detectors such as mass spectrometry are also described. The chapter provides a summary of some applications of CEC in the analysis of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products. 

Capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) is a high-resolution technique for protein and peptide separation performed at academic sites and in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for the analysis and characterization of, for example, recombinant antibodies and other recombinant proteins, isoforms of glycoproteins, point mutations in hemoglobin, and peptide mapping. Also, hyphenation to mass spectrometry and chip-based CIEF (microfabrication) have shown promise. CIEF kits and specific recipes/application notes are available from vendors of capillary electrophoresis (CE) equipment, as are a vast amount of publications and handbooks of CE published over recent years. 

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