Challenging Bioanalyses with Capillary Electrophoresis

Abstract

This report covers advances in capillary electrophoresis (CE) from January 2018 through September 2019. A summary of the literature during this time period is insightful. A search performed using the SciFinder Scholar® database for journal reports (limited to English) using the term capillary electrophoresis returned approximately 1,800 publications. Further analysis of this list, depicted in Figure 1, provided a snapshot of activity in biomolecular research. Classes of biomolecules most frequently associated with CE publications were proteins, drugs, DNA and metabolites. Another measure of the impact of CE is the translation of this technology into society. A search of patent activity illustrating this process of CE technology transfer returned 346 patents published in all languages, with a substantial contribution reported only in Chinese (198 patents) or English (98 patents). The versatility of CE for biological systems is exemplified by the rise of the technique in several areas. Metabolomics research involving measurements of large sets of molecules with subtle structural differences benefits from rapid separations achieved with high peak capacity and automated instruments. Single cell and sub-cellular analyses continue to progress in CE because of the size compatibility of the technique with the sample. Other examples of areas utilizing CE that are accelerating include portable and printable instrumentation, affinity interaction, as well as proteomics. As an established analytical tool, CE instrumentation and methods have been designed to be accessible and easily adopted by researchers with expertise in areas beyond the field of separations. Generally, publications including CE measurements either outline innovations in the technique or they are compelling applications of a mature analytical approach. The goal of this review, which is limited to 180 citations, is

Recent (2018–2020) development in capillary electrophoresis

“…Newly discovered analyte-interacting reagents or solvents, such as synthetic receptors, affinity probes, and ionic liquids, have been broadening the scope of analytes addressable by CE. We anticipate more exploration of such reagents will be continued to develop CE solutions for challenging analytes [8].…”

“…For the works published before 2018, many elegant reviews can be found [2,[4][5][6]. Notably, exciting CE applications in analysis of proteins, pharmaceuticals, nucleic acids, metabolites, and carbohydrates, have been thoroughly discussed in a nice review recently published [8], which also provides an outlook for future directions towards improving the analysis of single cells and bio-particles. Thus, in this review, we mainly covered emerging and evolving advances in the aspects of sample preconcentration, separation media or coating development, detector construction, and multidimensional separation.…”

Microfluidics as a Novel Tool for Biological and Toxicological Assays in Drug Discovery Processes: Focus on Microchip Electrophoresis

“…Another common approach is to chemically modify the channel surface to reduce interaction of proteins with the wall. For two relatively recent reviews that address the role of protein adsorption in ME and CE separations, see [39,40]. The application of a high voltage to each reservoir is achieved by the presence of platinum electrodes directly connected to power supplies, while a persistent buffer flow is directed towards both sample and waste reservoirs [35].…”

“…Another common approach is to chemically modify the channel surface to reduce interaction of proteins with the wall. For two relatively recent reviews that address the role of protein adsorption in ME and CE separations, see [39] and [40].…”

Topino: A Graphical Tool for Quantitative Assessment of Molecular Stream Separations

“…Despite great potential and many years of work on MSS methods themselves, the analysis of streams, i.e. the central element of MSS, was underdeveloped until recently [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. We developed a set of tools for the quantitative characterization of streams in MSS to fill in this gap [18,19].…”