Electrophoretic analysis of polyamines in exhaled breath condensate based on gold-nanoparticles microextraction coupled with field-amplified sample stacking.

In this work, citrate-capped gold-nanoparticles (citrate-AuNPs) have been firstly used for selective extraction of trace polyamines, putrescine (Put) and cadaverine (Cad), followed by field-amplified sample stacking (FASS) coupled with capillary electrophoresis and capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (FASS-CE-CD). Put and Cad were extracted by electrostatic attractions between the amine group of the polyamines and the citrate ligands adsorbed on the surfaces of AuNPs. AuNPs microextraction (AuNPs-ME) effectively shortened preparation time (50 min) by introducing ultrasound, and the required sample extraction volume was only 1 mL. Furthermore, a synergistic enrichment strategy based on off-line AuNPs-ME and on-line FASS significantly improved the detection sensitivity, making the enrichment factors up to 1726-1887 times. Under the optimum conditions, Put and Cad could be well separated from the potential coexisting substances and then directly determined by CE-CD without derivatization. Due to its low sample consumption, high sensitivity (LODs: 0.070-0.17 ng mL), and acceptable recoveries (90-105%), this AuNPs-ME/FASS-CE-CD method provides a rapid, economical and eco-friendly approach for direct determination of polyamines in human exhaled breath condensate, and has potential application prospects in preliminary noninvasive diagnosis of oral and respiratory inflammation.