Saint-Petersburg Scientific-Research Centre for Ecological Safety, Russian Academy of Sciences, 18, Korpusnaya street, St. Petersburg 197110, Russia
Christophoros Christophoridis
Laboratory of Catalytic—Photocatalytic Processes and Environmental Analysis, Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Patriarchou Grigoriou & Neapoleos, 15310 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
Audrey Combes
Department of Analytical, Bioanalytical Sciences and Miniaturization (LSABM), UMR CBI 8231 ESPCI ParisTech/CNRS, PSL Research University, ESPCI ParisTech, 75005 Paris, France
Christine Edwards
Pharmacy & Life Sciences, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen AB10 7GJ, UK
Jutta Fastner
Drinking-Water Resources and Water Treatment, Federal Environment Agency, Schichauweg 58, 12307 Berlin, Germany
Joop Harmsen
Alterra, P.O. Box 47, Wageningen 6700 DD, The Netherlands
Anastasia Hiskia
Laboratory of Catalytic—Photocatalytic Processes and Environmental Analysis, Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Patriarchou Grigoriou & Neapoleos, 15310 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
Leopold L. Ilag
Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Triantafyllos Kaloudis
Water Quality Department, Division of Quality, Research and Development (R&D), Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP SA), 156 Oropou str., 11146 Athens, Greece
Srdjan Lopicic
Institute for Pathological Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Miquel Lürling
Aquatic Ecology & Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, Wageningen 6700 DD, The Netherlands
Hanna Mazur-Marzec
Department of Marine Biotechnology, University of Gdansk, Al. Marszalka Pilsudskiego 46, Gdynia 81-378, Poland
Jussi Meriluoto
Biochemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, Tykistökatu 6A 3rd Floor, Turku 20520, Finland
Cristina Porojan
Mass Spectrometry Research Centre (MSRC) and PROTEOBIO Research Groups, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Rossa Avenue, Bishopstown, V92 F9WY, Co. Cork, Ireland
Yehudit Viner-Mozzini
Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, P.O. Box 447, Migdal 14950, Israel
Nadezda Zguna
Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Exposure to β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) might be linked to the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Analytical chemistry plays a crucial role in determining human BMAA exposure and the associated health risk, but the performance of various analytical methods currently employed is rarely compared. A CYANOCOST initiated workshop was organized aimed at training scientists in BMAA analysis, creating mutual understanding and paving the way towards interlaboratory comparison exercises. During this workshop, we tested different methods (extraction followed by derivatization and liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis, or directly followed by LC-MS/MS analysis) for trueness and intermediate precision. We adapted three workup methods for the underivatized analysis of animal, brain and cyanobacterial samples. Based on recovery of the internal standard D3BMAA, the underivatized methods were accurate (mean recovery 80%) and precise (mean relative standard deviation 10%), except for the cyanobacterium Leptolyngbya. However, total BMAA concentrations in the positive controls (cycad seeds) showed higher variation (relative standard deviation 21%–32%), implying that D3BMAA was not a good indicator for the release of BMAA from bound forms. Significant losses occurred during workup for the derivatized method, resulting in low recovery (<10%). Most BMAA was found in a trichloroacetic acid soluble, bound form and we recommend including this fraction during analysis.
