Determination of glucuronides of molecules of toxicological interest by liquid chromatography negative-ion mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization

Summary

A new chromatographic method for the direct determination of metabolites (glucuronide-conjugates) of molecules of toxicological relevance in biological media with the minimum sample pre-treatment has been developed. A high performance liquid chromatographyatmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-APCI-MS) system was used for this purpose. The separation of four glucuronides Aminophenylglucuronide (APhG), Phenylglucuronide (PhG),p-Nitrophenylglucuronide (NPhG) and α-Naphthylglucuronide (NG) was obtained under ion-suppressed reversed-phase chromatography conditions, by using high-speed (3 cm, 3 μm) columns and formic acid (2 mM) as the acid modifier in the mobile phase. Different C-18 stationary phases (partially endcapped and non-endcapped) were evaluated in order to obtain retention for these very polar, water soluble molecules. The ionization of the analytes was obtained in negativeion (NI) mode. Detection limits were in the range 1–5 mg L⁻¹ and calibration curves were linear over two order of magnitude. Intra-day and inter-day precision were in the range 2.9–10.6% for all the compounds. The method was successfully applied for the determination of PhG in a urine sample of a European Quality Assurance Programme for Organic Solvent Metabolites.