Protein adducts analytical methods

Once incorporated, unbound lewisite is quickly hydrolyzed. Its predominant metabolite is 2-chlorovinylarsonous acid, CVAA (Figure 50.8). Analytical methods to confinn lewisite exposure have, at least in the past, focused on the detection and quantification of CVAA. However, Noort et al. (2002) also pointed out that due to the high affinity of arsenic towards sulfhydryl groups, adducts of lewisite/ CVAA and cysteine residues of proteins are formed. In an in vitro study, incubating " C-labeled lewisite with human blood samples, 90% of lewisite was found in erythrocytes, whereas 25 to 50% of arsenic was bound to globin. From these protein adducts, CVAA can be released to form an adduct with the antidote British Anti-Lewisite (BAL) (Fidder et al, 2000). The authors were also able to identify a specific protein adduct of lewisite formed with the cysteine residues 93 and 112 of P-globin. See Detection of DNA and protein adducts of vesicants, below, for analytical... 

Noort D, Black RM. Methods for the retrospective detection of exposure to toxic scheduled chemicals. Part B mass spectrometric and immunochemical analysis of covalent adducts to proteins and DNA. In Mesilaakso M, ed. Chemical Weapons Convention Chemicals Analysis Sample Collection. Preparation, and Analytical Methods, Chichester, West Sussex, England John Wiley Sons 2005 433 51. 

Detailed metabolism studies have been reported for the RCAs, CS and CR, and to a lesser extent, capsaicin, but sensitive analytical methods for the metabolites have yet to be developed. The formation of covalent adducts with proteins has been little studied, although observations have suggested that CS and CN react with proteins. In the case of CS and capsaicin, major metabolites are derived from an initial hydrolysis with loss of some of the carbon skeleton, and it needs to be established if background levels of these metabolites occur in non-exposed individuals. 

B. A. G., Development, validation and characterization of an analytical method for the quantification of hydrolysable urinary metabolites and plasma protein adducts of 2,4-and 2,6-toluene diisocyanate, 1, 5-naphthalene diisocyanate and 4,4 -methylenediphenyl diisocyanate. Biomarkers, 8, 204-217, 2003. 

Assays for several other potential urinary analytes have been developed, but the analytes have yet to be confirmed in human exposed samples. N7-(2-hydroxyethylthioethyl) guanine is a breakdown product from alkylated DNA that has been observed in animal studies. Fidder et al. (1996a) developed both a GC-MS method that requires derivatization of the analyte and also a LC-MS-MS method that can analyze the compound directly. Other possible urinary analytes are an imidazole derivative formed from the reaction of sulfur mustard with protein histidine residues (Sandelowsky et al., 1992) and sulfur mustard adducts to metallothionien (Price et al., 2000). 

Owing to its compatibility with solution samples, ESI is preferred over other ionization methods in many MS fields. Applications of metal ion adducts have been reported for ESI [55-57]. For example, ESI can be used to produce alkali-metal adducts of antibiotics that do not form abundant [M+H]+ ions. Informative adducts between alkali-metal ions and peptides have been observed under a variety of conditions of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). It should be noted, however, that the presence of salt ion adducts cause the signal suppression and interference with the interpretation of the mass spectra, particularly in analytical MS of proteins and other biological molecules. 

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