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Second Laboratory Validation of β-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine, N-(2aminoethyl)Glycine, and 2,4-Diaminobuytric Acid by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Tandem Mass Spectrometry

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A Correction to this article was published on 10 February 2021

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Abstract

The analysis of β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) has been validated according to AOAC international standards by a single laboratory (Glover et al. 2015). Using the same validated method, we add a second laboratory validation optimizing for different equipment. Given publicized concerns about standardizing methods across laboratories and recent reviews indicating superior results using 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate derivatization for the separation of BMAA and its isomers N-(2aminoethyl)glycine (AEG), and 2,4-diaminobuytric acid (DAB) (Bishop and Murch 2019), we add a second laboratory validation to this method demonstrating that the method is robust across laboratories using different equipment. Using the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA 2018) method for evaluating instrument parameters, we calculated a limit of detection (LOD) of 10 pg/ml for BMAA, AEG, and DAB and lower limits of quantification (LLOQ) of 37 pg/ml based on reagent blanks. In biological matrices, a higher LLOQ may be warranted for AEG and DAB. We demonstrate that the endogenous BMAA in mussel tissue can be lost by drying the hydrolyzed preparation and suggest sample preparation parameters be evaluated for robustness.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Ken Matusuk and Freeman Van Brunt, Thermo Scientific, for mass spectrometer instrument support. We also thank J. Metcalf for contributing the cyanobacterial material, Pearse McCarron for the NRC mussel tissue, and S. Bishop for laboratory assistance. We thank the William Stamps Farish Fund for funding to support this work.

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  1. Brain Chemistry Laboratory, Jackson, WY, 83001, USA

    Sandra Anne Banack

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  1. Sandra Anne Banack
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Correspondence to Sandra Anne Banack.

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Banack, S.A. Second Laboratory Validation of β-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine, N-(2aminoethyl)Glycine, and 2,4-Diaminobuytric Acid by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Neurotox Res 39, 107–116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-020-00208-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-020-00208-x

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