Capillary Electrophoresis Coupled On-Line with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry for Elemental Speciation

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has become a powerful analytical technique for the separation of a variety of analytes ranging from small inorganic ions to large biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. A selective and sensitive detector for CE has been one of the most important and challenging prerequisites for the growth of CE. On-column UV-Vis detectors are commonly used to determine the analytes separated by CE. However, these detectors are often not very selective. Other detection techniques such as mass spectrometry, laser induced fluorescence, amperometry, and inductively coupled plasma spectrometry have been investigated to provide a more sensitive and selective detection for the target analytes. However, relatively few studies have been published on the use of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) as a means of detection in CE separation.     

Capillary electrophoresis of drugs: current status in the analysis of pharmaceuticals

The current status of capillary electrophoresis (CE) in pharmaceutical analyses is reviewed with about 300 references, mainly from 1996 until 1999. This article covers the use of CE for assay and purity determination of the main component, analysis of natural medicines, antisense DNA, peptides, and proteins. Analysis of hydrophobic and/or electrically neutral drugs by electrokinetic chromatography, capillary electrochromatography and nonaqueous CE is critically evaluated. Detailed techniques for the separation of enantiomers are given in the text with some actual applications. Furthermore, this review includes sensitivity and regulatory aspects for the actual use of CE in new drug applications (NDA). The analytical validation required for CE in NDA is also treated.     

Capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry and its application to the analysis of biological mixtures

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) mass spectrometry (MS), with its ability to separate compounds present in extremely small volume samples rapidly, with high separation efficiency, and with compound identification capability based on molecular weight, is an extremely valuable analytical technique for the analysis of complex biological mixtures. The highest sensitivities and separation efficiencies are usually achieved by using narrow capillaries (5-50 micro m i.d.) and by using sheathless CE-to-MS interfaces. The difficulties in CE-to-MS interfacing and the limited loadability of these narrow columns, however, have prevented CE-MS from becoming a widely used analytical technique. To remedy these limitations, several CE-MS interfacing techniques have recently been introduced. While electrospray ionization is the most commonly used ionization technique for interfacing CE-to-MS, matrix assisted laser desorption ionization has also been used, using both on-line and off-line techniques. Moreover, the high concentration detection limit of CE has been addressed by development of several sample concentration and sample focusing methods. In addition, a wide variety of techniques such as capillary zone electrophoresis, capillary isoelectric focusing, and on-column transient isotachophoresis have now been interfaced to MS. These advances have resulted in a rapid increase in the use of CE-MS in the analysis of complex biological mixtures. CE-MS has now been successfully applied to the analysis of a wide variety of compounds including amino acids, protein digests, protein mixtures, single cells, oligonucleotides, and various small molecules relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.     

Sequence confirmation of modified oligonucleotides using IRMPD in the external ion reservoir of an electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometer

Modified oligonucleotides continue to play an important role as antisense compounds that inhibit the expression of genes associated with metabolic disorders, cancer, and infectious diseases. Because the majority of modifications render these molecules refractory to standard enzymatic sequencing techniques, alternative sequencing methods which are fast and reliable are needed. In this work we explore how sugar and backbone modifications affect fragmentation patterns observed from oligonucleotides which are fragmented by infrared multiple photon dissociation in the external reservoir of an electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometer. The modifications influence which fragment types (i.e., a(n)-B versus c(n)) dominate and the ease with which the oligonucleotides are fragmented. General observations for confirming the sequence of oligonucleotides are described.     

Polyalkylcyanoacrylate Nanospheres and Nanocapsules for the Delivery of Antisense Oligonucleotides

Abstract

Active ingredients are being aimed at targets implied in various mechanisms such as nuclear enzymes, receptors, membrane receptors or ionic channels. This non‐specific approach leads to adverse effects. From newly acquired knowledge of the genome, one can now plan to treat diseases by the administration of DNA coding for defective proteins. On the other hand, one can also plan to block expression of harmful proteins such as oncogenic proteins by the use of antisense oligonucleotides. These very short nucleic acids sequences are able to specifically form hybrids with an mRNA and to block the translation of the corresponding protein. However, stability issues and an inability to cross membranes and address suitable cellular compartments still limit the use of oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents. In this review, we focus on nanospheres and nanocapsules made of biodegradable polyisobutylcyanoacrylate polymer for the transport and the targeting of antisense oligonucleotides. Nanospheres are particles on the surface of which the oligonucleotides are adsorbed by ion pair formation using a hydrophobic cation. Nanocapsules are a new type of carrier displaying an aqueous content in which oligonucleotides are dissolved. These two systems both allow protection of oligonucleotides against degradation in the presence of pure serum and lead to in vivo inhibition of tumor growth.     

Structural Aspects of Nucleic Acid Analogs and Antisense Oligonucleotides

Hybridization of complementary oligonucleotides is essential to highly valuable research tools in many fields including genetics, molecular biology, and cell biology. For example, an antisense molecule for a particular segment of sense messenger RNA allows gene expression to be selectively turned off, and the polymerase chain reaction requires complementary primers in order to proceed. It is hoped that the antisense approach may lead to therapeutics for treatment of various diseases including cancer. Areas of active research in the antisense field focus on the mechanisms of cellular uptake of antisense molecules and their delivery to specific cell sites, an improved understanding of how these molecules inhibit the production of proteins, as well as the optimization of the chemical stability of antisense molecules and the thermodynamic stability of the duplexes they form with the mRNA targets. The last two issues in particular have prompted chemists to launch an extensive search for oligonucleotide analogs with improved binding properties for hybridization with RNA and higher resistance toward nuclease degradation. During the last years this research has resulted in a flurry of new chemical analogs of DNA and RNA with modifications in the sugar–phosphate backbone as well as in the nucleobase sites. However, to date little effort has been directed toward uncovering the exact origins of the gain or loss in stability when nucleic acid analogs bind to RNA. Although large amounts of thermodynamic data have been collected, the structural perturbations induced by the modifications in hybrid duplexes are only poorly understood. For many modified oligonucleotides the compatibility of protection, coupling, and deprotection chemistry with standard DNA and RNA synthesis protocols makes it now possible to generate modified nucleic acid fragments or mixed oligonucleotides containing modifications at selected sites in quantities suitable for three-dimensional structure investigations. Such studies should reveal the structural origins of the observed changes in affinity and specificity of binding for particular modifications and may guide the development of second-and third-generation antisense molecules. In addition, the availability of a previously unimaginable variety of modified building blocks and the investigation of their structures provides the basis for a deeper understanding of the native DNA and RNA structures. This contribution will summarize the results of X-ray crystallographic structure determinations of modified nucleic acid fragments conducted in our laboratory during the last three years and the insights gained from them.     

Cell-penetrating peptides as delivery vehicles for biology and medicine

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have found numerous applications in biology and medicine since the first synthetic cell-permeable sequence was identified two decades ago. Numerous types of drugs have been transported into cells using CPPs, including small-molecule pharmaceuticals, therapeutic proteins, and antisense oligonucleotides. Improved agents for medical imaging have been generated by conjugation with CPPs, with the appended peptides promoting cellular uptake and in some cases, cell-type specificity. Organelle-specific CPPs have also been generated, providing a means to target specific subcellular sites. This review highlights achievements in this area and illustrates the numerous examples where peptide chemistry was exploited as a means to provide new tools for biology and medicine.     

Impact of the Core Chemistry of Self-Assembled Spherical Nucleic Acids on their In Vitro Fate

Nucleic acid therapeutics (NATs), such as mRNA, small interfering RNA or antisense oligonucleotides are extremely efficient tools to modulate gene expression and tackle otherwise undruggable diseases. Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) can efficiently deliver small NATs to cells while protecting their payload from nucleases, and have improved biodistribution and muted immune activation. Self-assembled SNAs have emerged as nanostructures made from a single DNA-polymer conjugate with similar favorable properties as well as small molecule encapsulation. However, because they maintain their structure by non-covalent interactions, they might suffer from disassembly in biologically relevant conditions, especially with regard to their interaction with serum proteins. Here, we report a systematic study of the factors that govern the fate of self-assembled SNAs. Varying the core chemistry and using stimuli-responsive disulfide crosslinking, we show that extracellular stability upon binding with serum proteins is important for recognition by membrane receptors, triggering cellular uptake. At the same time, intracellular dissociation is required for efficient therapeutic release. Disulfide-crosslinked SNAs combine these two properties and result in efficient and non-toxic unaided gene silencing therapeutics. We anticipate these investigations will help the translation of promising self-assembled structures towards in vivo gene silencing applications.     

Polymer solution-filled column for the analysis of antisense phosphorothioates by capillary electrophoresis

A capillary electrophoresis (CE) column filled with 13% poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) solution is demonstrated to resolve different lengths of antisense phosphorothioates in 100 mM Tris-borate (pH 9.0) buffer containing 30% formamide at 50 degrees C. Two sets of mixtures composed of 15-20 mers of either antisense phosphorothioate or phosphodiester oligonucleotides were synthesized based on a sequence of the antisense orientation directed against DNA-methyltransferase (denoted as MT-AS) and were used as model compounds. It was found that column coating reduced electroosmotic flow, as well as wall adsorption, and led to the separation of both phosphorothioate and phosphodiester molecules. Substantial peak broadening, however, specifically occurred to the phosphorothioates and was reduced statisfactorily by the addition of formamide into the buffer solution, raising the temperature, and raising the pH value. Under experimental conditions, a linear relationship between the migration time and the base number was observed, indicating that no peak compression artifacts existed. Without tedious pretreatment, antisense phosphorothioates were spiked into human serum, followed by water dilution, and then directly injected into the column. Separation of different lengths of phosphorothioates was observed using pressure injection, which did not suffer from injection bias.     

毛细管电泳新型手性分离体系研究进展

在现代分离科学中,手性化合物的分离分析一直是研究的重点和难点。相比于高效液相色谱（HPLC）、气相色谱（GC）等传统色谱分析方法,毛细管电泳（CE）技术凭借其高效率、低消耗、分离模式多样化等诸多优势,已经发展成为手性分离研究领域最有应用前景的分析方法之一。近年来,研究人员在CE手性分析方法的构建过程中,基于毛细管电动色谱（EKC）、配体交换毛细管电泳（LECE）、毛细管电色谱（CEC）等各种基础电泳模式,不断地对传统手性分离体系进行优化和改造,构建出了许多高性能的新型手性CE分离体系。如利用各类功能化离子液体以"手性离子液体协同拆分""手性离子液体配体交换""离子液体手性选择剂"等模式设计出多种基于离子液体的CE手性分离体系;利用纳米材料独特的尺寸效应、多样性、可设计性等特点,直接或与传统手性选择剂有机结合构建CE手性分离体系。此外,金属有机骨架材料修饰、低共熔溶剂修饰、非连续分段式部分填充等各式新颖的CE手性分离体系也都被研究人员成功开发,并表现出较大的发展潜力。该综述将对近年来（尤其是2015~2019年）此类新型CE手性分离体系的发展状况进行梳理,并结合相应的手性识别机理研究和手性CE方法实际应用情况,对该领域存在的问题及发展前景进行分析和展望。     

On-line capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for the analysis of biomolecules

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become a key tool for the characterization of biologically relevant molecules in the last decade. Due to the complexity of most biological samples an upstream separation is essential. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has gained much interest due to its high separation efficiency, speed, and often complementary selectivity to liquid chromatography. We describe the state-of-the-art of on-line CE-MS for the analysis of molecules of biological origin. The characterization of peptides, including the study of post-translational modifications, intact proteins, oligonucleotides, and related interaction studies are reviewed. Relevant publications are summarized in tables, including some important method parameters. Key applications are discussed with respect to the advantages and limitations of CE-MS. Coupling interfaces, preconcentration techniques, capillary coatings, and the different CE techniques, e.g., capillary zone electrophoresis, capillary isoelectric focusing, capillary gel electrophoresis, etc. are briefly discussed against the background of their bioanalytical applications.     

Recent developments in the determination of urinary cancer biomarkers by capillary electrophoresis

Investigation of effective biomarkers for cancers is currently a popular area of study in clinical and cancer researches, because it can potentially lead to pre-cancer screening or pre-cancer diagnosis and may provide useful information on cancer type and the disease's stage of progression. More and more biochemical or chemical fluid components of the human body such as urine, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid have been considered to contain biomarkers, which are useful in cancer researches, pre-cancer diagnosis, and cancer follow-ups during or after cancer treatment. Several modern analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and other separation techniques as well as hyphenated techniques, have been extensively used in study of cancer biomarkers. Among these techniques, CE is considered to be a highly efficient and practical analytical technique because of the small sample volume requirement and its wide separation versatility, ranging from small inorganic molecules to large biomolecules. This review discusses the latest developments involving biomarkers and their analysis by CE, including a discussion of instrumental conditions, method developments, and data analysis.     

毛细管电泳分析中的富集技术及其应用

毛细管电泳（CE）具有分析速度快、分离效率高、样品消耗少、成本低廉等优点,已被应用于无机离子、有机小分子、蛋白质、核酸及细胞等的分析中。CE中最常用的检测方式是紫外检测（UV）,但由于常规进样样品体积小、检测光程短,CE-UV的灵敏度往往不能满足复杂样品中痕量物质直接分析的要求。CE中的在柱富集技术包括堆积、动态pH界面、吹扫和瞬间等速电泳等,可在很大程度上提高CE-UV的检测灵敏度;另外,固相和液相微萃取技术及其与在柱富集技术相结合应用在CE中也能净化样品基质,进一步提高富集倍数,改善分析灵敏度,从而拓宽了CE-UV在复杂样品分析中的应用范围。     

Synthesis, physicochemical and biochemical studies of 1',2'-oxetane constrained adenosine and guanosine modified oligonucleotides, and their comparison with those of the corresponding cytidine and thymidine analogues

We have earlier reported the synthesis and antisense properties of the conformationally constrained oxetane-C and -T containing oligonucleotides, which have shown effective down-regulation of the proto-oncogene c-myb mRNA in the K562 human leukemia cells. Here we report on the straightforward syntheses of the oxetane-A and oxetane-G nucleosides as well as their incorporations into antisense oligonucleotides (AONs), and compare their structural and antisense properties with those of the T and C modified AONs (including the thermostability and RNase H recruitment capability of the AON/RNA hybrid duplex by Michaelis-Menten kinetic analyses, their resistance in the human serum, as well as in the presence of exo and endonucleases).     

Capillary electrophoresis–based immunoassay and aptamer assay: A review

Over the last two decades, the group of techniques called affinity probe CE has been widely used for the detection and the determination of several types of biomolecules with high sensitivity. These techniques combine the low sample consumption and high separation power of CE with the selectivity of the probe to the target molecule. The assays can be defined according to the type of probe used: CE immunoassays, with an antibody as the probe, or aptamer-based CE, with an aptamer as the probe. Immunoassays are generally divided into homogeneous and heterogeneous groups, and homogeneous variant can be further performed in competitive or noncompetitive formats. Interacting partners are free in solution at homogeneous assay, as opposed to heterogeneous analyses, where one of them is immobilized onto a solid support. Highly sensitive fluorescence, chemiluminescence or electrochemical detections were typically used in this type of study. The use of the aptamers as probes has several advantages over antibodies such as shorter generation time, higher thermal stability, lower price, and lower variability. The aptamer-based CE technique was in practice utilized for the determination of proteins in biological fluids and environmentally or clinically important small molecules. Both techniques were also transferred to microchip. This review is focused on theoretical principles of these techniques and a summary of their applications in research.     

Performance of different separation methods interfaced in the same MS-reflection TOF detector: a comparison of performance between CE versus HPLC for biomarker analysis

One of the aims in the field of proteomics is the identification of a protein or polypeptide, or a range of these compounds, that could provide pre-symptomatic indication of the onset of a disease. A number of analytical techniques have been employed to try and achieve this end. These techniques have been applied to the complete range of body fluids and tissues that are readily available from clinical studies. Of these sample sources, the urinary low molecular weight peptidome has been shown to reflect changes in the health status of the individual. The alterations that occur in the polypeptide make up of urine, which reflect changes in biological status, are known as biomarkers. To be able to determine these changes no single technique has emerged that can cope with detecting the large number of peptides present and quantifying them over the wide concentration range they exist in. In this investigation, we made use of a single reflectron time of flight (RTOF)-MS analyser to which we first connected a CE system and then a nanoflow HPLC. Two pooled male and female standard urine samples were compared on these systems. Both techniques had similar results in terms of number of peptides detected and the mass range the peptides were detected over. The major differences in terms of biomarker research were the ability in CE to calibrate the migration time of the peptides to allow comparison between samples. In addition, CE was shown not to suffer from carry over from previous samples as was seen in the LC analysis.     

Analysis of drug interactions with serum proteins and related binding agents by affinity capillary electrophoresis: A review

Biomolecules such as serum proteins can interact with drugs in the body and influence their pharmaceutical effects. Specific and precise methods that analyze these interactions are critical for drug development or monitoring and for diagnostic purposes. Affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) is one technique that can be used to examine the binding between drugs and serum proteins, or other agents found in serum or blood. This article will review the basic principles of ACE, along with related affinity-based capillary electrophoresis (CE) methods, and examine recent developments that have occurred in this field as related to the characterization of drug–protein interactions. An overview will be given of the various formats that can be used in ACE and CE for such work, including the relative advantages or weaknesses of each approach. Various applications of ACE and affinity-based CE methods for the analysis of drug interactions with serum proteins and other binding agents will also be presented. Applications of ACE and related techniques that will be discussed include drug interaction studies with serum agents, chiral drug separations employing serum proteins, and the use of CE in hybrid methods to characterize drug binding with serum proteins.     

Antisense-Oligonucleotide – ein universelles Therapieprinzip

In recent years, a nova1 class of pharmaceuticals has been developed which bind in a predictable way to certain nucleic acid target sequences aiming at selective inhibition of expression of disease-causing genes. The chemical structure of these so-called antisense oligonucleotide compounds must be altered relative to their natural models to render them stable under in vivo conditions and to allow their penetration to the site of action inside cells. In this article, the principle of antisense oligonucleotide function, the structure of antisense oligonucleotide analogues, the different strategies for improvement of their biological potency, and selected reports on successful in vivo studies and first clinical investigations using these antisense oligonucleotides are discussed.