Abstract

Design of a Lab-on-a-Chip for the Quantitation of S-Nitrosothiols: From their Separation to their Decomposition and Electrochemical Detection

Anne Varenne, Professor, Chimie ParisTech, Unité de Technologies Chimiques et Biologiques pour la Santé

NO is a diatomic free radical that has in biological fluids extremely short half-life (<1 s). The addition of NO to functional proteins is as important as phosphorylation in its consequences on cellular activities. In order to be transported and stocked in biological fluids, NO binds to peptides and proteins forming S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs). The variation of their proportion has been recognized in many diseases.  RSNO are sensitive to decomposition by light, heat, and metal ions. RSNOs can exchange the NO between one other by transnitrosation reaction. Recently we studied the separation of different RSNOs and their transnitrosation reaction using capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection. Also, we developed a decomposition process of RSNO using copper to quantify RSNO by electrochemical techniques (ultra-micro electrodes). We are currently down scaling these approaches within microchip devices. This opens the way for an integrated lab-on-a-chip for S-nitrosothiols quantitation.