Butyrylcholinesterase Adducts Research Articles

Structure-Dependent Mechanism of Organophosphate Release from Albumin and Butyrylcholinesterase Adducts When Exposed to Fluoride Ion: A Comprehensive In Silico Study.

The most favorable targets for retrospectively determining human exposure to organophosphorus pesticides, insecticides, retardants, and other industrial organophosphates (OPs) are adducts of OPs with blood plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and human serum albumin (HSA). One of the methods for determining OP exposure is the reactivation of modified BChE using a concentrated solution of KF in an acidic medium. It is known that under the action of fluoride ion, OPs or their fluoroanhydrides can be released not only from BChE adducts but also from the adducts with albumin; however, the contribution of albumin to the total pool of released OPs after plasma treatment with KF has not yet been studied. The efficiency of OP release can be affected by many factors associated with the experimental technique, but first, the structure of the adduct must be taken into account. We report a comparative analysis of the structure and conformation of organophosphorus adducts on HSA and BChE using molecular modeling methods and the mechanism of OP release after fluoride ion exposure. The conformational analysis of the organophosphorus adducts on HSA and BChE was performed, and the interaction of fluoride ions with modified proteins was studied by molecular dynamics simulation. The geometric and energy characteristics of the studied adducts and their complexes with fluoride ion were calculated using molecular mechanics and semiempirical approaches. The structural features of modified HSA and BChE that can affect the efficiency of OP release after fluoride ion exposure were revealed. Using the proposed approach, the expediency of using KF for establishing exposure to different OPs, depending on their structure, can be assessed.

A retrospective screening method for carbamate toxicant exposure based on butyrylcholinesterase adducts in human plasma with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Carbamate pesticides are extensively used in agriculture for their inhibition to acetylcholinesterase and damages to the insects’ neural systems. Because of their toxicity, human poisoning incidents caused by carbamate pesticide exposure have occurred from time to time. What’s more, some lethally toxic carbamate toxicants known as carbamate nerve agents (CMNAs) have been supplemented in Schedule 1 of the Annex on Chemicals in the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by Organisation of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from 2020. And some other carbamates, like physostigmine, have been used in clinical treatment as anticholinergic drugs and their misuse may also cause damages to the body. Similar to organophosphorus toxicants, carbamate toxicants would react with butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in plasma when entering the human body, resulting in the BChE adducts, based on which the exposure of carbamate toxicants could be detected retrospectively. In this study, methylcarbamyl nonapeptide and dimethylcarbamyl nonapeptide from pepsin digestion of BChE adducts were identified with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) in product ion scan mode. Carbofuran was chosen as the target to establish the detection method of carbamate toxicant exposure based on methylcarbamyl nonapeptide digested from methylcarbamyl BChE. Procainamide-gel affinity purification, pepsin digestion and UHPLC–MS/MS analysis in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode were applied. Under the optimized conditions of sample preparation and UHPLC–MS/MS MRM analysis, the limits of detection (LODs) reached 10.0 ng/mL of plasma exposed to carbofuran with satisfactory specificity. The quantitation approach was established with d3-carbofuran-exposed plasma as the internal standard (IS) and the linearity range was 30.0–1.00 × 103 nmol/L (R2 >0.998) with the accuracy of 95.6%–107% and precision of ≤9% relative standard deviation (RSD). The applicability was also evaluated by N,N-dimethyl-carbamates with the LODs of 30.0 nmol/L for pirimicarb-exposed plasma based on dimethylcarbamyl nonapeptide. Because most of carbamate toxicants has methylcarbamyl or dimethylcarbamyl groups, this approach could be applied on the retrospective screening of carbamate toxicant exposure including CMNAs, carbamate pesticides or carbamate drugs. This study could provide an effective means in the fields of CWC verification, toxicological mechanism investigation and down-selection of potential treatment options.

Generic detection of organophosphorus nerve agent adducts to butyrylcholinesterase in plasma using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry combined with an improved procainamide-gel separation and pepsin digestion method

Organophosphorus nerve agent (OPNA) adducts to butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) can be applied to confirm exposure in humans. A sensitive method for generic detection of G- and V-series OPNA adducts to BChE in plasma was developed by combining an improved procainamide-gel separation (PGS) and pepsin digestion protocol with ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Residual matrix interferences from prior PGS purification of OPNA-BChE adducts from plasma were found to be a critical cause of significantly reduced UHPLC-MS/MS detection sensitivity. In our developed on-column PGS approach, the matrix interference was successfully removed by adding an appropriate concentration of NaCl to the washing buffer, and it could capture ≥92.5% of the BChE in plasma. The lower pH value and the longer digestion time in all previous pepsin digestion methods were found to be a key accelerated aging factor of several adducts such as tabun (GA)-, cyclohexylsarin (GF)-, and soman (GD)-BChE nonapeptide adducts, making them difficult to detect. The aging event of several OPNA-BChE nonapeptide adducts was so successfully addressed that the formic acid level in enzymatic buffer and digestion time were lowered to 0.05% (pH 2.67) and 0.5 h, respectively, and the post-digestion reaction was immediately terminated. The improved condition parameters were optimal for pepsin digestion of all types of OPNA-BChE adducts into their individual unaged nonapeptide adducts with the highest yields, expanding the applicability of the method. The method had a nearly one-fold decrease in sample preparation time through the reduction of digestion time and removal of ultrafiltration procedure after digestion. The limit of identification (LOI) were determined respectively as 0.13 ng mL−1, 0.28 ng mL−1, 0.50 ng mL−1, 0.41 ng mL−1 and 0.91 ng mL−1 for VX-, sarin (GB)-, GA-, GF-, and GD-exposed human plasma, being low exposure value compared to previously documented approaches. The approach was utilized to fully characterize the adducted (aged and unaged) BChE levels of five OPNAs in a series of their individual exposed concentration (1.00–400 nM) of plasma sample, and successfully detect OPNA exposure from all unknown plasma samples from OPCW's second and third biomedical proficiency tests. The OPNA-BChE adducts, their aged adducts, and unadducted BChE from OPNA-exposed plasma can simultaneously be measured using the method. The study provides a recommended diagnostic tool for generic verification of any OPNA exposure with high confidence by detecting its corresponding BChE adduct.

Self-organization of stearic acid salts on the hemispherical surface of the aqueous subphase allows functionalization of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry target plates for on-plate immobilized metal affinity chromatography enrichment

In this work we propose an approach for formation of periodic two-dimensional structures on a solid substrate via self-assembly of stearic acid molecules on an aqueous subphase drop containing metal ions. It was shown that when a saturated solution of stearic acid in n-hexane was applied to the hemispherical surface of an aqueous media containing barium ions, barium stearate monolayer was formed, which spontaneously collapsed during movement from the drop surface to the substrate. By means of infrared and Raman spectroscopy, light and scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry it was proved that a multi-structure of collapsed metal stearate monolayers with a developed surface was formed on the substrate surface. Thin films formed by a single application of stearic acid solution in n-hexane to a drop of aqueous lanthanum nitrate solution were used for selective enrichment of human butyrylcholinesterase adducts with diisopropyl fluorophosphate.

Nontargeted High-Resolution Mass Spectrometric Workflow for the Detection of Butyrylcholinesterase-Derived Adducts with Organophosphorus Toxicants and Structural Characterization of Their Phosphyl Moiety after In-Source Fragmentation.

Organophosphorus (OP) nerve agents were used for chemical warfare, assassination, and attempted murder of individuals. Therefore, forensic methods are required to identify known and unknown incorporated OP poisons. Serum is tested for the presence of covalent reaction products (adducts) of the toxicant with, e.g., butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) typically by targeted analysis, thus only detecting known OP adducts. We herein present a nontargeted two-step mass spectrometry (MS)-based workflow taking advantage of a high-resolution (HR) Orbitrap mass spectrometer and its option for in-source collision-induced dissociation (IS-CID) highly valuable for the detection of unknown agents. BChE adducts are extracted by immunomagnetic separation and proteolyzed with pepsin yielding a phosphylated nonapeptide (NP) biomarker NP(OP). In step 1, the sample is separated by micro liquid chromatography (μLC) detecting the NP(OP) by nontargeted HR MS followed by data-dependent tandem-MS (ddMS2). Extracted ion chromatograms of diagnostic product ions at m/z 778.33661, 673.29402, and 602.25690 reveal the accurate mass of the NP(OP) precursor ion as well as the elemental composition of the adducted phosphyl moiety. Considering this information, a second μLC run is performed (step 2) for nonselective IS-CID of NP(OP) yielding the cleaved charged phosphyl moiety. This fragment ion is immediately subjected to targeted CID in parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). The accurate mass of its product ions allows the determination of their elemental composition and thus supports its structural elucidation. The described workflow was exemplarily applied to NP(OP) of three Tamelin esters and VX providing highly appropriate abilities for the detection of adducts even of unknown OP poisons like Novichok agents.

A Method for Diagnosing Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure in Humans using Liquid Chromatography Coupled Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Organophosphate (OP) pesticides are commonly utilized worldwide for agricultural purposes and pose a health threat through air, ground, and water contamination. Here, we present a convenient method for diagnosing exposure to OP pesticides in humans. This immunoprecipitation method relies on extraction of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), a biomarker of OP poisoning that adducts OP compounds, from human serum using agarose beads conjugated to anti-BChE antibodies. Extracted BChE was then digested with pepsin and analyzed for unadducted and OP-adducted peptides by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). To characterize and validate this method, pooled human plasma was exposed to parathion and dichlorvos to form diethoxyphospho, aged ethoxyphospho and dimethoxyphospho adducts with BChE. Untreated plasma was also analyzed for unadducted peptides. Additionally, samples were analyzed using Ellman's assay to measure BChE functional activity. The percent inhibition of BChE was 53.5±5.76 and 95.2±0.37%, respectively, for plasma treated with parathion for 1 hour and 24 hours. The percent inhibition was 97.2±0.98 for plasma treated with dichlorvos for 1 hour. The percent inhibition was 97.9±0.41% when the plasma treated with parathion for 1 hour, parathion for 24 hour and dichlorvos for 1 hour were mixed. Individual adducts were quantified in a single chromatographic run. Untreated plasma contained 26.4±1.87 ng/mL of unadducted BChE and no adducted peptides. In contrast, the plasma sample treated with both pesticides contained no unadducted BChE, but did contain 9.46±1.10, 10.9±0.98 and 14.1±1.10 ng/mL of diethoxyphospho, aged-ethoxy, and dimethoxyphospho peptides, respectively. The ability to identify and measure BChE and BChE adducts to parathion and dichlorvos is expected to be useful for diagnosing human exposure to multiple OP pesticides.

Mass spectrometry based proteomic approach for the screening of butyrylcholinesterase adduct formation with organophosphates

Organophosphates’ toxic effect causes covalent binding to serine-198 in the active site of human plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with loss of enzymatic function (covalent inhibition). Mass spectrometric detection of modified FGESAGAAS peptide at the active site is a powerful exposure biomarker tool. The aim of this study was to develop mass spectrometry-based method for BChE adduct formation screening, avoiding the use of standard peptides. Immunomagnetic separation of proteins from plasma was optimized. Commercially available anti-butyrylcholinesterase monoclonal antibodies, immobilized on magnetic beads, resulted in stable and reusable affinity sorbent. The method was tested on horse serum BChE and real human plasma from healthy donors, treated with Russian VX (VR). The BChE isolated from blood plasma was digested with pepsin and analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The method was evaluated by using synthetic peptides and by comparison to the enzymatic activity Ellman's assay. The minimum concentration of VR exposure, resulting in detectable VR-adduct, was 0.2 ng/mL, which corresponded to the relative BChE inhibition of less than 2%. Adduct formation assessment was performed via monitoring of decrease in non-modified peptide LC-MS/MS signal and increase in VR-modified peptide signal. The designed approach was tested in a pilot study with 5 blood samples from healthy volunteers. Mass spectrometry-based method for BChE adduct formation was found to be in agreement with Ellman's inhibition assay, so the method is applicable for direct BChE inhibition assessment.

Comparison of Efficiency of Purification (from Human Plasma) of a Nerve Agent Adduct of Butyrylcholinesterase Between the Affinity Gel Method and Immunomagnetic Separation.

O-ethyl S-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methyl phosphonothiolate (VX) is a highly toxic chemical warfare agent because it inhibits cholinesterase (ChE) activity in the nervous system. Inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity by VX is due to formation of a phosphorylated BChE adduct; this adduct in human plasma can serve as a biomarker of exposure to nerve agents. We compared purification efficiency between the procainamide affinity gel method and immunomagnetic separation (IMS) for the nerve agent adduct of BChE in plasma and then optimized the sample preparation by purifying BChE to measure biomarkers of human exposure to organophosphorus nerve agents. The purification efficiency of IMS was 5-fold greater than that of the procainamide affinity gel method because the antibody conjugate with protein G magnetic beads ensured highly selective capture and high recovery of VX-inhibited BChE from plasma. Protein isolation and extraction of the adduct of VX-inhibited BChE from plasma were made more specific by IMS. A 50 µL of the IMS solution was enough to bind VX-inhibited BChE in up to 0.5 mL of plasma. Nonetheless, the IMS method has a limitation in terms of reutilization of the complexes antibody-magnetic beads. We expect that this approach can be used to quantify other types of organophosphorus adducts in human plasma, thus serving as a possible general assay for biomarkers of exposure to nerve agents.

Enhanced stability of blood matrices using a dried sample spot assay to measure human butyrylcholinesterase activity and nerve agent adducts.

Dried matrix spots are safer to handle and easier to store than wet blood products, but factors such as intraspot variability and unknown sample volumes have limited their appeal as a sampling format for quantitative analyses. In this work, we introduce a dried spot activity assay for quantifying butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) specific activity which is BChE activity normalized to the total protein content in a sample spot. The method was demonstrated with blood, serum, and plasma spotted on specimen collection devices (cards) which were extracted to measure total protein and BChE activity using a modified Ellman assay. Activity recovered from dried spots was ∼80% of the initial spotted activity for blood and >90% for plasma and serum. Measuring total protein in the sample and calculating specific activity substantially improved quantification and reduced intraspot variability. Analyte stability of nerve agent adducts was also evaluated, and the results obtained via BChE-specific activity measurements were confirmed by quantification of BChE adducts using a previously established LC-MS/MS method. The spotted samples were up to 10 times more resistant to degradation compared to unspotted control samples when measuring BChE inhibition by the nerve agents sarin and VX. Using this method, both BChE activity and adducts can be accurately measured from a dried sample spot. This use of a dried sample spot with normalization to total protein is robust, demonstrates decreased intraspot variability without the need to control for initial sample volume, and enhances analyte stability.

Profiling Cholinesterase Adduction: A High-Throughput Prioritization Method for Organophosphate Exposure Samples

A high-throughput prioritization method was developed for use with a validated confirmatory method detecting organophosphorus nerve agent exposure by immunomagnetic separation high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. A ballistic gradient was incorporated into this analytical method to profile unadducted butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in clinical samples. With Zhang et al.’s Z′ factor of 0.88 ± 0.01 (SD) of control analytes and Z factor of 0.25 ± 0.06 (SD) of serum samples, the assay is rated an “excellent assay” for the synthetic peptide controls used and a “double assay” when used to prioritize clinical samples. Hits, defined as samples containing BChE Ser-198 adducts or no BChE present, were analyzed in a confirmatory method for identification and quantitation of the BChE adduct, if present. The ability to prioritize samples by highest exposure for confirmatory analysis is of particular importance in an exposure to cholinesterase inhibitors such as organophosphorus nerve agents, in which a large number of clinical samples may be collected. In an initial blind screen, 67 of 70 samples were accurately identified, giving an assay accuracy of 96%, and it yielded no false-negatives. The method is the first to provide a high-throughput prioritization assay for profiling adduction of Ser-198 BChE in clinical samples.

Newly Observed Spontaneous Activation of Ethephon as a Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibitor

The plant growth regulator ethephon (2-chloroethylphosphonic acid) inhibits human butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) by making a covalent adduct on the active site serine 198. Our goal was to extend earlier studies on ethephon inhibition. Addition of freshly prepared ethephon to BChE in buffered medium, at pH 7.0 and 22 °C, resulted in no inhibition initially. However, inhibition developed progressively over 60 min of incubation. Preincubation of ethephon in pH 7-9 buffers increased its initial inhibitory potency. These observations indicated that ethephon itself was not the inhibitor. About 3% of the initial ethephon could be trapped as a BChE adduct. Mass spectral analysis of the active site peptide from inhibited BChE showed that the inhibitor added a mass of 108 Da to the active site serine on peptide FGES198AGAAS. This result rules out a previous hypothesis that ethephon adds HPO3 to BChE (added mass of 80 Da). To accommodate these observations, we propose that in aqueous media at neutral to slightly alkaline pH about 3% of the ethephon is converted (t1/2 = 9.9 h at pH 7.0) into a cyclic oxaphosphetane which is the actual BChE inhibitor forming the 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate adduct on BChE at Ser198 while about 97% of the ethephon breaks down to ethylene (t1/2 = 11-48 h at pH 7.0) which is responsible for plant growth regulation.

Detectable organophosphorus pesticide exposure in the blood of Nebraska and Iowa residents measured by mass spectrometry of butyrylcholinesterase adducts

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detected organophosphorus pesticide (OP) metabolites in the urine of 96% of Americans, for urine collected before the ban on nonagricultural use of OP in December 2001. It was not known whether exposure was to OP degradation products or to live OP. Our goal was to determine whether exposure was to live OP in the years 2001, 2003, and 2005. Our test for exposure was the presence of OP adducts on plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) detected by mass spectrometry. We purified three lots of BChE from the pooled plasma of 600–800 individuals each, in the years 2001, 2003, and 2005. Blood donors were healthy adults living in Nebraska and Iowa, two agricultural states that grow corn and soybeans. The purified BChE was tested for the presence of OP adducts on serine 198 using MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. Low levels of methoxyphosphate-labeled BChE were found. The amount of adducted BChE was highest (1%) in blood collected in the year 2001 and lowest (0.2%) in blood collected in the year 2005. A negative control sample of BChE purified from cord blood collected in the year 2012 had no detectable adducts. It was concluded that Nebraska and Iowa residents were exposed to very low levels of live, intact organophosphorus pesticides, and that exposure levels in the pooled samples declined after the year 2001.

Analytical approaches for monitoring exposure to organophosphorus and carbamate agents through analysis of protein adducts

Appropriate treatment of a poisoned patient requires knowing the identity of the poison. This review summarizes the methods for identifying poisoning by organophosphorus and carbamate poisons. Mass spectrometry methods identify the poison from the adducts they form with proteins in blood. The most sensitive method uses potassium fluoride to release the organophosphorus agent from its covalent binding to serine 198 of human butyrylcholinesterase. The released poison is identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The drawback of this method is that it does not detect exposure to agents such as soman, because butyrylcholinesterase adducts with these agents age to a non-reactivatable form. A method that detects both aged and non-aged organophosphylated adducts as well as carbamate adducts is one that digests butyrylcholinesterase with a protease and analyzes the modified peptide by mass spectrometry. This method does not distinguish between poisons that have the same mass after reaction with butyrylcholinesterase--for example, between exposure to chlorpyrifos oxon and paraoxon. Albumin forms a stable, covalent bond with organophosphates on tyrosine 411. The rate of reaction with albumin is much slower than with butyrylcholinesterase, but albumin adducts persist for a longer time in the circulation; they do not age; and they do not release the organophosphate when a patient is treated with an oxime.

Identification of phosphorylated butyrylcholinesterase in human plasma using immunoaffinity purification and mass spectrometry

Paraoxon (diethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate) is an active metabolite of the common insecticide parathion and is acutely toxic due to the inhibition of cholinesterase (ChE) activity in the nervous systems. The inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity by paraoxon is due to the formation of phosphorylated BChE adduct, and the detection of the phosphorylated BChE adduct in human plasma can serve as an exposure biomarker of organophosphate pesticides and nerve agents. In this study, we developed an immunoaffinity purification and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) strategy for identifying phosphorylated BChE in human plasma treated by paraoxon. BChE was captured by biotinylated anti-BChE polyclonal antibodies conjugated to streptavidin magnetic beads. Western blot analysis showed that the antibody was effective to recognize both native and modified BChE with high specificity. Using a purified BChE protein, we initially identified the exact phosphorylation site on the serine residue (S198) with a 108Da modification by both MS/MS and accurately measured parent ion masses and quantified the extent of phosphorylation on S198 following paraoxon treatment to be >99.9%. Then, the phosphorylated BChE peptide in paraoxon-treated human plasma following immunoaffinity purification was successfully identified based on the accurate measured mass and retention time information initially obtained from the purified BChE protein. Thus, immunoaffinity purification combined with LC–MS represents a viable approach for the detection and quantification of phosphorylated BChE as an exposure biomarker of organophosphates and nerve agents.

Magnetic Electrochemical Sensing Platform for Biomonitoring of Exposure to Organophosphorus Pesticides and Nerve Agents Based on Simultaneous Measurement of Total Enzyme Amount and Enzyme Activity

We report a new approach for electrochemical quantification of enzymatic inhibition and phosphorylation for biomonitoring of exposure to organophosphorus (OP) pesticides and nerve agents based on a magnetic bead (MB) immunosensing platform. The principle of this approach is based on the combination of MB immunocapture-based enzyme activity assay and competitive immunoassay of the total amount of enzyme for simultaneous detection of enzyme inhibition and phosphorylation in biological fluids. Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was chosen as a model enzyme. In competitive immunoassay, the target BChE in a sample competes with the BChE immobilized on the MBs to bind to the limited sites of anti-BChE antibody labeled with quantum dots (QD-anti-BChE), followed by stripping voltammetric analysis of the bound QD conjugate on the MBs. This assay shows a linear response over the total BChE concentration range of 0.1-20 nM. Simultaneous real time BChE activity was measured on an electrochemical carbon nanotube-based sensor coupled with a microflow injection system after immunocapture by the MB-anti-BChE conjugate. Therefore, the formed phosphorylated BChE adduct (OP-BChE) can be estimated by the difference values of the total amount of BChE (including active and OP-inhibited) and active BChE from established calibration curves. This approach not only eliminates the difficulty in screening of low-dose OP exposure (less than 20% inhibition of BChE) because of individual variation of BChE values but also avoids the drawback of the scarce availability of OP-BChE antibody. It is sensitive enough to detect 0.5 nM OP-BChE, which is less than 2% BChE inhibition. This method offers a new method for rapid, accurate, selective, and inexpensive quantification of OP-BChE and enzyme inhibition for biomonitoring of OP and nerve agent exposures.

The kinetic study of the inhibition of human cholinesterases by demeton-S-methyl shows that cholinesterase-based titration methods are not suitable for this organophosphate

The organophosphorus insecticide, demeton-S-methyl (DSM), is considered as a good surrogate of the highly toxic nerve agent VX for skin absorption studies due to similar physico-chemical properties and in vitro percutaneous penetration profile. But, when skin distribution was estimated by measuring inhibition of cholinesterase activity, the results were poorly reproducible. The various grades of commercial DSM solutions were suspected to be the origin of the discrepancies. This hypothesis was tested by measuring inhibition of human acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase by two commercial DSM solutions. The inhibition rate was independent on the enzyme concentration confirming pseudo-first order conditions. But complete inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase activity was achieved only when the DSM concentration was at least 1500-fold higher than the enzyme concentration. Besides, complete inhibition of acetylcholinesterase was never achieved. Mass spectrometry analysis of the inhibited butyrylcholinesterase adducts identified monomethoxyphosphorylated-serine, the aged product of inhibition by DSM or a derivative with a modified leaving group. Neither spontaneous reactivation nor aging of the dimethoxyphosphorylated-serine could account for the inhibition kinetics observed, suggesting an overly complicated kinetic scheme not compatible with the requirement of a titration experiment. In conclusion, cholinesterase-based analytical methods should be avoided for DSM titration in skin penetration studies.

Mass Spectrometric Identification of Chemical Warfare Agent Adducts with Biological Macromolecule for Verification of Their Exposure

Exposure to chemical warfare agents (CWAs) can be verified by detecting their degradation products in biological samples. However, the half-lives of these CWA degradation products in the body are short. CWAs are known to combine with biological macromolecules and the covalently bound compounds are called adducts. The residence time of adducts in the human body is longer than that of the corresponding CWA degradation products. Therefore, development of analytical methods to detect these adducts is a more realistic way of verifying CWA exposure. In this mini review, we describe the present state of research on analytical methods for identifying CWA adducts, and mainly introduce our research on nerve gas adducts using a direct method. Novel analytical methods for verifying low level exposure to nerve gases use liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) has been purified by affinity chromatography and sodium dodecylsulfate poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified enzyme is inhibited by nerve gases (sarin, VX and soman) and digested by chymotrypsin, and then the peptides are analyzed by LC-MS and LC tandem MS. The peptide fragment that is combined with nerve gas is detected by LC-MS. Furthermore, the chemical structure of the adduct peptide characterized by MS provides structural information about the analyte. The detection limit of BuChE or BuChE adduct is estimated at 4 ng/injection (53 fmol/injection). If at least 1% of BuChE activity is inhibited by nerve gas, the adduct can be detected at a level of 1% BuChE inhibition in the victim's serum.

Carbofuran poisoning detected by mass spectrometry of butyrylcholinesterase adduct in human serum

Carbofuran is a pesticide whose acute toxicity is due to inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in plasma is inhibited by carbofuran and serves as a biomarker of poisoning by carbofuran. The goal was to develop a method to positively identify poisoning by carbofuran. Sera from an attempted murder and an attempted suicide were analyzed for the presence of carbofuran adducts on BChE. The BChE from 1 ml of serum was rapidly purified on a 0.2 ml procainamide-Sepharose column. Speed was essential because the carbofuran-BChE adduct decarbamylates with a half-life of about 2 h. The partially purified BChE was boiled to denature the protein, thus stopping decarbamylation and making the protein vulnerable to digestion with trypsin. The labeled peptide was partially purified by HPLC before analysis by LC/MS/MS in the multiple reaction monitoring mode on the QTRAP 2000 mass spectrometer. Carbofuran was found to be covalently bound to Ser 198 of human BChE in serum samples from two poisoning cases. Multiple reaction monitoring triggered MS/MS spectra positively identified the carbofuran-BChE adduct. In conclusion a mass spectrometry method to identify carbofuran poisoning in humans has been developed. The method uses 1 ml of serum and detects low-level exposure associated with as little as 20% inhibition of plasma butyrylcholinesterase.

Diagnosis of OP Exposure by Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Human Butyrylcholinesterase Adducts

Diagnosis of OP Exposure by Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Human Butyrylcholinesterase Adducts

Verification of Exposure to Organophosphates: Generic Mass Spectrometric Method for Detection of Human Butyrylcholinesterase Adducts

We present a generic mass spectrometric method to verify exposure to organophosphates, based on the chemical conversion of the phosphylated peptides obtained after pepsin digestion of human butyrylcholinesterase (HuBuChE) to a common precursor peptide. After exposure of plasma to various organophosphates (nerve agents, pesticides), HuBuChE was isolated from plasma by procainamide affinity-based solid-phase extraction. Upon subsequent pepsin digestion, the respective phosphylated nonapeptides could be identified in the digests. After treatment of the pepsin digests with Ba(OH)2 in the presence of a nucleophilic tag (a thiol or amine), the phosphylated nonapeptides were transformed into a common tagged nonapeptide that could be analyzed sensitively by means of LC tandem MS. So far, best results were obtained with 2-(3-aminopropylamino)ethanol as nucleophilic tag. By applying the presented method, HuBuChE inhibition can now be monitored accurately by mass spectrometry, without advance knowledge of the structure of the inhibitor.