The application of electrochemistry to metabolic profiling

Abstract

Electrochemistry is one of the most sensitive and versatile techniques available for the study of biomolecules (Kissinger and Heineman, 1996; Brajter-Toth and Chambers, 2002). This discussion will focus on the use of 3-electrode electrochemical (EC) flow cells for controlled-potential applications. This encompasses some of the most common uses of electrochemistry, including amperometric and coulometric detection for HPLC (LCEC) (Acworth et al.9 1997; Sabbioni et al, 2004; Gonzalez de la Huebra et aL, 2003; Riis, 2002) and hydrodynamic voltammetry (Nagels et ah, 1989). These techniques all involve the use of EC cells to produce oxidative and/ or reductive (redox) reactions of analyte in flowing solutions, LCEC is well known for its selectivity and sensitivity. A logical extension of these reaction-based techniques is the coupling of EC with analytical devices such as mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). When in parallel, EC may be used to complement the analytical capabilities of MS and NMR (Gamache et aL, 2004). When in series, EC may be used to analyze species that can be studied with these and other structurally informative devices (Zhou and Van Berkel, 1995; Jurva et al, 2003; Hayen and Karst, 2003). This chapter will focus on quantitative and qualitative aspects of multivariate LCEC approaches to metabolic profiling and will briefly discuss synthetic applications of EC as a potential tool for metabolite characterization. © 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved.