New sialic acids from biological sources identified by a comprehensive and sensitive approach: liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) of SIA quinoxalinones

Sialic acids are a family of 9-carbon carboxylated sugars, wheredifferent substitutions of the backbone define over 30 members.Biological roles of these substitutions have been missed untilrecently because of their low abundance and lability to conventionalisolation/purification methods. This new approach characterizessialic acids using electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry(ESI-MS) to monitor the HPLC separation of their DMB (1,2-diamino-4,5-methylenedioxy-benzene)derivatives (quinoxalinones). A combination of retention timesand spectra characteristics allows definition of the type andposition of the various substituents. This approach requiresno previous purification, involving a simple derivatizationreaction followed by direct injection on the microbore HPLCcolumn. A complete spectrum, including molecular ions and CADfragments of a sialic acid qainoxalinone, is obtained by injecting10–20 pmol of the compound. Individual quinoxalinonescan be purified by regular RP-HPLC and analyzed by direct-injectionESI-MS or LSIMS. Using this approach, we identified 28 differentsialic acids, including the following new species: Neu5Gc9Lt(BSM), anhydro derivatives of Neu5Ac other than the 4,8-anhydro(horse serum hydrolyzates), KDNS(7)Ac and KDN5(7),9Ac₂ (amphibianPleurodeles waltl), four isomers of Neu5Gc8MexAc and three anhydroderivatives of Neu5Gc8MS (glycolipids of the starfish Pisasterbrevirpinus), and Neu5Ac8S (in addition to Neu5Gc8S, in theglycolipids of the sea urchin Lovenia cordiformis). Resultsshow the usefulness of LC-ESIMS to study sialic acid diversity,and identification of small amounts of unexpected sialic acidsor new members of their family. sialic acid purification electrospray ionizationmass spectrometry quinoxalinone