Addiction is an increasing characteristic of today's society in all parts of the world.  In 2011, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 22.5 million Americans above the age of 12 had used an illicit drug or abused a psychotherapeutic medication.  Research efforts to learn more about the pathways involved in addiction are imperative.  One way to study these pathways is to measure the concentration of neuropeptides involved.  However, they are challenging to detect by instrumental methods due to their very low basal concentration (pM to nM) levels.  Therefore, modifying bioanalytical methods to improve them would prove beneficial.  Since microdialysis (MD) sampling is the most common technique used to collect neuropeptides from the brain in vivo, current studies have coupled this process to a Micro Extraction by Packed Sorbent (MEPS) column on-line.  MEPS is a relatively new type of solid phase microextraction that can be used to preconcentrate any sample.   Previous studies have characterized the C18 MEPS column and shown met-enkephalin (ME) and leu-enkephalin (LE) to be purified with an average 4.5-fold increase by eluting them with methanol over three washes.  ME and LE peptides were then separated and quantified by HPLC-UV.  This method will be implemented in our current studies which encompass determining the loading capacity of ME and LE from the dialysate onto the C18 MEPS column collected from microdialysis sampling on-line.

Development of an online microdialysis-MEPS sampling method of met-enkephalin and leu-enkephalin

247th National Meeting (2014)

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