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Updated: May 19, 2026

Sheathless Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry for Metabolic Profiling of Biological Samples
Published on: October 1, 2016
Sialic acid speciation using capillary electrophoresis: optimization of analyte derivatization and separation
Zoltan Szabo1, Jonathan Bones, Andras Guttman
1Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.
Abstract:
Capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF) was employed for rapid sialic acid speciation, facilitating the quantitative determination of N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) and N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) on glycoproteins. Derivatization of the sialic acids with 2-aminoacridone (2-AMAC), using classical reductive amination in a nonaqueous solvent, led to the spontaneous decarboxylation of the sialic acid residues as determined by CE-LIF and offline mass spectrometric analysis. Modification of both the labeling conditions, to drive the decarboxylation reaction to completion and the CE-LIF parameters to separate the neutral species by complexation with a neutral coated capillary and borate reversed polarity, led to a robust platform for the rapid, sensitive, and quantitative speciation of sialic acids. The method can readily be used for quality control of recombinant biopharmaceuticals.
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