Study on urinary metabolic profile of phenylketonuria by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with dual electrochemical detection—Potential clinical application in fast diagnosis of phenylketonuria

The urinary metabolic marker compounds, namely phenylpyruvic acid (PPA), 2-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (oOPAA), 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (pOPAA), phenyllactic acid (PLA) and phenylacetic acid (PAA) of phenylketonuric individuals were detected by a novel method of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection and amperometric detection (MECC-C4D/AD). Electrophoretic runs were performed in a 35 mmol L−1 SDS/60 mmol L−1 H3BO3–Na2B4O7 running buffer (pH 8.2) at a separation voltage of 16 kV, and five marker compounds and the major coexisting compound uric acid (UA) could be well separated within 23 min. Highly linear response was obtained for five marker compounds over three orders of magnitude with detection limits ranging from 6.6 × 10−6 to 6.4 × 10−8 g mL−1 (S/N = 3). The proposed method has been used to detect the marker compounds simultaneously in urine samples with the advantages of obtaining more information about target analytes and avoiding redundant measurements and high assay cost. Urinary patterns in phenylketonuric babies were distinct and easily distinguished from those of healthy newborns. The proposed MECC-C4D/AD method could find clinical application in early noninvasive diagnosis of phenylketonuria (PKU), as significant differences could be found in the urinary content of five marker compounds among the phenylketonuric babies without or with dietotherapy and the healthy babies.