Separation and detection strategies for reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and their reaction products

Oxidative stress is involved in many diseases including neurological disorders and cardiovascular disease. New tools capable of monitoring biomarkers of oxidative stress in vivo and in vitro can be used to investigate the cause and progression of these disease states. Capillary and microchip electrophoresis are useful separation-based tools for the analysis of biomarkers of oxidative stress. In particular, its ability to perform fast, efficient separations of multiple analytes in a single run makes it possible to monitor several biomarkers in a single sample with high temporal resolution. In this presentation, new strategies to separate and detect the reaction products of reactive nitrogen and oxygen (RNOS) species with amino acids and peptides using capillary and microchip electrophoresis is presented. In particular the reaction products of peroxynitrite and hydroxyl radical with tyrosine, phenylalanine and tyrosine containing peptides are investigated. The use of microchip electrophoresis for the detection of reactive nitrogen and oxygen species (RNOS) in macrophages and immune cells is also presented. The development of new electrochemical and fluorescence, including bipolar electrochemistry coupled to fluorescence, for the determination of these analytes is also described.