Author(s)

Stephen Childs¹, Nicolas Haroune¹, Lee Williams¹, Michael Gronow^2*

¹Department of Pharmacy Health & Well-Being, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Sunderland, Sciences Complex, Sunderland, UK.
²Cambridge Cancer Research Fund, Cambridge, UK.

The low molecular weight thiols present in the deproteinized extract of a prostate cancer cell line (LNCaP-FGC) were analysed after derivatization with the Ellman reagent (ESSE). The mixed disulphides formed (RSSE) were fractionated, characterized and quantified by liquid chromatography on a C-18 column using UV detection. This revealed the presence, in femtomoles per cell, of glutathione (8.30 ± 0.73), cysteine (2.71 ± 0.04) and cysteinylglycine (0.83 ± 0.10), accounting for the bulk of the thiol present. Further analysis of the cell extracts using a novel and sensitive mass spectrometry technique allowed the detection of low level of an additional derivative which was identified as cysteinylglycerate using NMRspectroscopy.

Prostate Cancer, Low Molecular Weight Thiols, Thiol Analysis, Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Novel Thiol, LC-MS, NMR, Ellman’s Reagent

Childs, S. , Haroune, N. , Williams, L. and Gronow, M. (2017) Investigation of the Low Molecular Weight Thiol Composition in a Metastatic Prostate Cancer Cell Line (LNCaP) by LC-UV-MS and NMR after Labelling with the Ellman Reagent. American Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 8, 1-18. doi: 10.4236/ajac.2017.81001.