Modifications to the organophosphorus nerve agent-protein adduct refluoridation method for retrospective analysis of nerve agent exposures.
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Organophosphorus nerve agents (OPNAs) continue to pose a threat to military personnel and the general public because of their toxicity and their potential use as weapons of mass destruction. An effective method for the detection of human exposure to OPNAs involves the refluoridation of nerve agents adducted to the serum protein butyrylcholinesterase. The regenerated agents are then enriched by solid-phase extraction and quantified by isotope-dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We have previously reported improvements that resulted in a 10-fold increase in sensitivity. We have now made further changes to the method that include the addition of confirmation ions, the addition of soman (GD) to the assay, the expansion of the linear range, and the elimination of high-volume injection to decrease background noise and run time while improving sensitivity. This report includes the standard operating procedures for this method for tabun, sarin, soman, cyclohexylsarin, and VX and validation studies. The method's limits of detection ranged from 5.5 to 16.5 pg/mL for the G analogue of VX and GD, respectively. Characterization of quality control (QC) materials resulted in an average coefficient of variation of 15.1% for the five analytes in low QC pools and 11.7% in high QC pools. (+info)
Verification of exposure to cholinesterase inhibitors: generic detection of OPCW Schedule 1 nerve agent adducts to human butyrylcholinesterase.
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Phosphylated butyrylcholinesterase is one of the most important biomarkers to verify an exposure to nerve agents, and it can be analyzed with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) by detection of a phosphylated nonapeptide that results after digestion of butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) with pepsin. For a sensitive analysis (low degree of BuChE inhibition), the identity of the cholinesterase inhibitor has to be known in order to use the LC-MS-MS instrument in the most sensitive selected reaction monitoring mode. In practice, the identity of the cholinesterase inhibitor will not be known beforehand, and the number of possible organophosphates is greater than 1000. However, the number of possible molecular masses of organophosphates is approximately 170. A method for which only 34 transitions in the multiple reaction monitoring mode have to be acquired in order to screen for an exposure to all Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Schedule 1 nerve agents was developed. (+info)
Mass spectrometry identifies covalent binding of soman, sarin, chlorpyrifos oxon, diisopropyl fluorophosphate, and FP-biotin to tyrosines on tubulin: a potential mechanism of long term toxicity by organophosphorus agents.
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Acute toxicity of organophosphorus compounds in guinea pigs is sex- and age-dependent and cannot be solely accounted for by acetylcholinesterase inhibition.
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Quantification of organophosphorus nerve agent metabolites using a reduced-volume, high-throughput sample processing format and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
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A reduced-volume, high-throughput analytical method has been developed for the quantification of organophosphorus (OP) nerve agent metabolites in human urine. Metabolites of soman, sarin, cyclohexyl-sarin, VX, and Russian-VX were quantified down to a lowest reportable limit of 1 ng/mL in human urine. One hundred microliter urine samples were preconcentrated using normal-phase 96-well solid-phase extraction silica sorbent beds. Dual-column hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography was applied in a 2.5-min isocratic separation followed by negative electrospray isotope-dilution multiple-reaction-monitoring mass spectrometry. Method validation included the characterization of two synthetic urine pools, relative recovery experiments, and calculation of the method limit of detection. All liquid handling steps were processed in a high-density 96-well format, including sample aliquoting, extraction, dry-down, and reconstitution. This allows up to 3840 unknown samples, plus calibrators and quality control materials, to be prepared on a single liquid handler in a 24-h period. In a public health emergency involving OP-nerve agents, this method provides the sample preparation and analytical capacity to respond rapidly to a large number of patient samples. (+info)