Identification of Aspergillus Conidia in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Using Offline Combination of Capillary Electrophoresis in Supercritical Water-Treated Fused Silica Capillary and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Anal Chem. 2020 Jun 2;92(11):7588-7595. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00165. Epub 2020 May 21.

Abstract

Diagnosis of fungal infection in lung parenchyma is relatively difficult. Bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage is very useful in its diagnosing. Therefore, a method for rapid online concentration and analysis of Aspergillus conidia in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid using the combination of transient isotachophoresis (tITP) and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) with subsequent off-line identification of the separated conidia by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is described in this study. In the proposed procedure, conidia were first dynamically adhered onto the roughened part of the inner surface of a fused silica capillary prepared by etching with supercritical water. Then the adhered conidia were desorbed, concentrated, and separated using a combination of tITP and MEKC. Finally, the fractions containing the separated conidia were collected from the capillary and analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS. The adhesion efficiency under the optimized experimental conditions was about 80%. This rapid diagnosis will contribute to timely initiation of therapy and increase the patient's chances of survival.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aspergillus / isolation & purification*
  • Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / microbiology*
  • Bronchoalveolar Lavage*
  • Electrophoresis, Capillary
  • Humans
  • Silicon Dioxide / chemistry
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
  • Water / chemistry

Substances

  • Water
  • Silicon Dioxide