Separation of Enantiomers of Selected Sulfur-Containing Amino Acids by Using Serially Coupled Achiral-Chiral Columns

Abstract

Homocysteine is an important indicator of human health. Increased levels of plasma homocysteine are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral arterial disease. Homocysteine is naturally occurring amino acid and it is formed during the methionine metabolism. It can be either transsulfurated to cysteine or remethylated to methionine. Therefore, the simultaneous monitoring of homocysteine, cysteine, and methionine is often desirable. Many studies are focused on the achiral separations of these amino acids, but no one has considered their chiral separations. In this work, HPLC method has been developed for enantiomeric separations of homocysteine, cysteine, and methionine by using teicoplanin columns.

Keywords:

• amino acids
• columns
• electrochemical detection
• enantiomers
• HPLC
• teicoplanin