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Updated: Jun 12, 2025

Extraction of Non-Protein Amino Acids from Cyanobacteria for Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Analysis
Published on: December 9, 2022
Separation and Quantification of Isomeric Forms of Aminobutyric Acids
Kamal Awad1, Akhilla Kumar2, Marian N Aziz3
1Bone-Muscle Research Center, College of Nursing and Health Innovation, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA. kamal.awad@uta.edu.
Abstract:
The biological actions of mirror-image enantiomers, such as L- and D-enantiomers of amino acids, can differ significantly due to their distinct interactions with biological systems. This is particularly evident in the case of amino acids like L- and D-BAIBA (beta-aminoisobutyric acid) and AABA (alpha-aminoisobutyric acid). These enantiomers have similar physical and chemical properties, making it challenging to distinguish and quantify them accurately using conventional methods like LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry). LC-MS/MS protocols have traditionally quantified these amino acids together in general forms. For example, BAIBA was generally detected without separating L- from D-BAIBA isoform. In this study, we introduced a novel methodology that not only overcomes these challenges but also accurately identifies isomers and enantiomers of aminobutyric acid, thereby significantly advancing the fields of analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology.
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