Examination of an absolute quantity of less than a hundred nanograms of proteins by amino acid analysis

Anal Bioanal Chem. 2013 Oct;405(25):8073-81. doi: 10.1007/s00216-013-7056-1. Epub 2013 May 30.

Abstract

We developed an ultra-sensitive method of amino acid analysis (AAA) for the absolute quantification of less than 100 ng of proteins, in solution or on polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes using an oxygen-free chamber for protein hydrolysis. We used a pre-label method with 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate for fluorescence detection, ion-pair chromatography with a reversed-phase column, and an ultra-high-pressure high-performance liquid chromatography. We optimized both handling- and instrument-dependent factors for accurate quantification and showed that the least amount of proteins to quantify was determined by handling accuracy rather than instrumental limit for quantification which was 0.6 fmol/amino acid. As a new evaluation method for the handling accuracy, we adopted the protein identification by the obtained amino acid compositions by AAA and the Swiss-Prot database search without the restriction of species. As a result, the least amount of starting material for AAA was 16 ng (0.24 pmol) for a solution of bovine serum albumin (BSA), 33 ng (0.50 pmol) for BSA on a PVDF membrane, and 44 ng (0.15 pmol) for thyroglobulin on a PVDF membrane. These results demonstrate that the ultra-sensitive AAA developed in this study is feasible for absolute quantification of biological significant protein.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acids / analysis*
  • Aminoquinolines / chemistry
  • Animals
  • Carbamates / chemistry
  • Cattle
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / methods*
  • Chromatography, Reverse-Phase / methods
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / methods*
  • Fluorescence
  • Hydrolysis
  • Limit of Detection
  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Polyvinyls / chemistry
  • Proteins / analysis*
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / analysis
  • Thyroglobulin / analysis

Substances

  • 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate
  • Amino Acids
  • Aminoquinolines
  • Carbamates
  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Polyvinyls
  • Proteins
  • polyvinylidene fluoride
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine
  • Thyroglobulin