use of circular dichroism as a simple heparin-screening strategy

Heparin, a heterogeneous polysaccharide, is used extensively as an anticoagulant. Recently, however, tainted heparin was associated with acute reactions that lead to numerous deaths. Extensive investigations ultimately showed oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a semi-synthetic polysaccharide, to be p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry 2011-01, Vol.399 (2), p.701-706
Main Authors: Stanley, F. E, Stalcup, A. M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Analytical Chemistry
Anticoagulants - chemistry
Biochemical assays
Biochemistry
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Chondroitin
Chondroitin sulfate A
Chondroitin Sulfates - analysis
Circular dichroism
Circular Dichroism - methods
Contamination
Dermatan Sulfate - analysis
Drug adulteration
Drug Contamination
Food Science
Glycosaminoglycan
Glycosaminoglycans
Heparin
Heparin - chemistry
Laboratory Medicine
Methods
Monitoring/Environmental Analysis
Original Paper
Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate
Polariscope
Spectra
Sulfates
Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry
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Summary:Heparin, a heterogeneous polysaccharide, is used extensively as an anticoagulant. Recently, however, tainted heparin was associated with acute reactions that lead to numerous deaths. Extensive investigations ultimately showed oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a semi-synthetic polysaccharide, to be present in the contaminated samples. These events highlighted the need for new, convenient heparin-screening methods capable of rapidly determining sample purity. In this work, we report the use of circular dichroism spectroscopy to analyze heparin samples for the presence of heparin-like adulterants (e.g., chondroitin sulfate A, dermatan sulfate, and oversulfated chondroitin sulfate) in a simple and straightforward manner. This strategy exploits the subtle differences in the optical properties of each polymer; these differences result from structural dissimilarities. To the best of our knowledge, the findings presented here are the first report of heparin purity screening using traditional spectropolarimetry techniques.
ISSN:1618-2642
1618-2650
DOI:10.1007/s00216-010-4272-9