Improved ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic method for simultaneous determination of five gout-related metabolites in human serum.

Creatinine and purines are gout-related metabolites commonly quantified by liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet and mass spectrometry. However, the high cost of liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry hindered its extensive use in ordinary hospitals and clinical laboratories. Using the traditional liquid chromatography method, the full separation of these metabolites in complex biological samples is still not achieved. In this study, an improved ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet spectroscopy method was reported for quantitative determination of five gout-related metabolites (i.e., creatinine, uric acid, hypoxanthine, xanthine, and inosine) in human serum within 10 min. A UHPLC system equipped with a hydrophilic C18 column was used to improve separation, shorten analysis time, and increase analysis throughput. The performance of the method was validated by evaluating linearity (squared correlation coefficient > 0.9991), recovery (92.8-100.0%, with relative standard deviation < 4.7%), accuracy (relative errors < 14.6%), precision (0.2-4.1% for intraday and 2.1-7.3% for interday) and stability (-14.1 to 8.3% in autosampler for 12 h and -13.3 to 2.2% for freeze-thaw cycles). This method was successfully applied to quantify gout-related metabolites in serum samples of healthy controls and gout patients, which was expected to be used in the clinical investigation of gout at different stages.

Kang L ，Liu J ，Zhang H ，Jiang M ，Jin Y ，Zhang M ，Hu P ... -  《-》

Simultaneous quantification of urinary purines and creatinine by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet spectroscopy and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry: Method development, validation, and application to gout study.

We present an ultra high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet spectroscopy and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous quantification of ten purines (adenine, hypoxanthine, guanine, xanthine, deoxyadenosine, adenosine, inosine, guanosine, xanthosine, and uric acid) and creatinine in human urine. After chromatographic separation on an ACE Excel 2 AQ column, high abundant creatinine and uric acid and the other low abundant purines were sequentially detected by ultraviolet and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry within a single run. Method validations including specificity (improved by accurate mass measurement), linearity (correlation coefficients ≥0.9944), limit of quantification (0.002-9.756 µg/mL), intra- and interday precision (relative standard deviations ≤9.1 and 14.0%, respectively), accuracy (relative errors ≤13.1%), extraction recovery (between 90.3 and 109.6%), matrix effect (between 85.3 and 110.5%), and stability (relative errors ≤14.3%) were fully evaluated. This approach was applied to characterize the disordered purine metabolism in acute and chronic gout as an example. Quantitative results (normalized by creatinine) showed that an overproduction of urinary purine precursors might be involved in the gout process. The developed method represents a useful tool to investigate the purine disturbances in gout and other relevant diseases.

Yuan Y ，Jiang M ，Zhang H ，Liu J ，Zhang M ，Hu P ... -  《-》

Hypercrosslinked strong cation-exchange polymers for selective extraction of serum purine metabolites associated with gout.

In this study, hypercrosslinked strong cation-exchange polymer resins (HXLPP-SCX) were synthesized and employed as selective sorbents for the solid-phase extraction (SPE) of basic purine metabolites associated with gout. The HXLPP-SCX material was prepared based on hypercrosslinking reactions and sulfonated with concentrated H2SO4. This synthetic procedure is facile and efficient without using highly toxic reagent. The resulting resins were characterized in the form of monodisperse microspheres (mean diameters of 3‒5μm) with narrow pore size (2.1nm) and relatively high specific surface areas (801m(2)/g). The polymers also possess high ion-exchange capacity (IEC, 2.22mmol/g) and good adsorption and selectivity performances for basic compounds. The resins used as SPE sorbents permit the selective enrichment of three pivotal purine metabolites (hypoxanthine, xanthine and inosine) in human serum followed by HPLC analysis. Method validation including linearity range, sensitivity, accuracy and reproducibility were evaluated. This method was exemplarily applied in the analysis of serum purines in gout patients and healthy controls. The present results demonstrate a promising potential of this HXLPP-SCX material for the clinical sample pretreatment.

Xu Y ，Liu J ，Zhang H ，Jiang M ，Cao L ，Zhang M ，Sun W ，Ruan S ，Hu P ... -  《-》

Study on the diagnosis of gout with xanthine and hypoxanthine.

Hyperuricemia is the only biochemical index in the classification of acute gouty arthritis in American Rheumatism Association 1977 and the main basis of clinical diagnosis for most doctors. However, nearly half of the time gout occurs without hyperuricemia, especially in an acute attack，which leads to an urgent need to find a new substitute diadynamic criteria of gout. Xanthine and hypoxanthine, as precursors of uric acid, have been reported to be high in gout patients with hyperuricemia and presumed to be gout biomarkers. To further explore the possibility of xanthine and hypoxanthine to be gout biomarkers as substitutes for uric acid. A reversed-phase HPLC-UV method was employed for simultaneous quantitative detection of uric acid (UA), xanthine (X), and hypoxanthine (HX) in gout patients' (with and without hyperuricemia) and healthy persons' serum. The xanthine and hypoxanthine concentrations in gout patients with hyperuricemia and without hyperuricemia are higher than in healthy persons with a P < 0.001. This study supplements previous researches by confirming that xanthine and hypoxanthine are significantly elevated in gout patients' serum especially in patients' with normouricemia, which supported xanthine and hypoxanthine may have clinical application for the diagnosis of gout.

Wang Y ，Deng M ，Deng B ，Ye L ，Fei X ，Huang Z ... -  《-》

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and tandem mass spectrometry for simultaneous determination of metabolites in purine pathway of rat plasma.

It has been proved that the purine metabolic pathway has been implicated in various biological disorders including gout, diabetes, coronary heart diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. The analysis of the purine metabolic pathway in organisms reveals important alterations under different physiological and pathological conditions, which contributes to the pathological study, diagnosis, and therapy of related diseases. In the present study, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-UV-MS/MS) method was developed for conducting the comprehensive analysis of the metabolite profiles of the purine pathway in rat plasma through a single analysis. The purine metabolites including adenosine-5'-monophosphate, guanosine-5'-monophosphate, adenosine, inosine, guanosine, inosine-5'-monophosphate, deoxyadenosine, deoxyguanosine, deoxyinosine, xanthine, hypoxanthine, and uric acid, were separated and quantified in the short running time of 10min. After rapid chromatographic separation achieved by an Agilent Zorbax SB-Aq column, high concentration of uric acid and the remaining purine metabolites at lower levels were respectively detected by ultraviolet detector and triple quadruple mass spectrometry within a single analysis. The proposed method was validated by applying charcoal-stripped plasma as a matrix and it was proved to be linear (R2>0.982), accurate (with a relative error for accuracy <±15% and the relative standard deviation for intra- and inter-run precision <11%) and reproducible (with a matrix effect ranging between 86.49% and 111.44% with a maximum RSD of 8.69%). As a result, the method was successfully applied to the quantification of the endogenous purine metabolites in rat plasma. It was found that the concentration levels of the purine metabolites may keep a physiological balance as an integrated system in normal individuals and the concentration level of uric acid in rat plasma was 64μM which was more than 200 times greater than the other purine metabolites. The established method and the measurement of the concentration of these purines in normal rat plasma may help the investigation of the action mechanisms between purine disorders and related diseases.

Lu JJ ，Jia BJ ，Yang L ，Zhang W ，Dong X ，Li P ，Chen J ... -  《-》