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Quantification of sulfated polysaccharides in urine samples is relevant to pharmacokinetic studies in drug development projects and to the non-invasive diagnosis and therapy monitoring of mucopolysaccharidoses. The Heparin Red Kit is a particularly simple and user friendly fluorescence assay for the quantification of sulfated polysaccharides and has recently emerged as a novel tool for the monitoring of their blood levels during pharmacokinetic studies in clinical trials. The standard protocol for the blood plasma matrix is, however, not suited for urine samples due to matrix interference. The present study identifies inorganic sulfate as the interfering component in urine. The sulfate level of urine is typically 1-2 orders of magnitude higher compared with the blood plasma level. Addition of either hydrochloric acid or magnesium chloride counteracts sulfate interference but still enables sensitive detection of sulfated polysaccharides such as heparin, heparan sulfate and dermatan sulfate at low microgramm per milliliter levels. This study extends the application range of the Heparin Red Kit by a simple modification of the assay protocol to the direct quantification of various sulfated polysaccharides in human urine., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, 2 schemes, 2 tables

Sulfated polysaccharides constitute a large and complex group of macromolecules which possess a wide range of important biological properties. Many of them hold promise as new therapeutics, but determination of their blood levels during pharmacokinetic studies can be challenging. Heparin Red, a commercial mix-and-read fluorescence assay, has recently emerged as a tool in clinical drug development and pharmacokinetic analysis for the quantification of sulfated polysaccharides in human plasma. The present study describes the application of Heparin Red to the detection of heparin, a highly sulfated polysaccharide, and fucoidan, a less sulfated polysaccharide, in spiked mouse and rat plasmas. While the standard assay protocol for human plasma matrix gave less satisfactory results, a modified protocol was developed that provides within a detection range 0 to 10 micrograms per mL better limits of quantification, 1.1 to 2.3 micrograms per mL for heparin, and 1.7 to 3.4 micrograms per mL for fucoidan. The required plasma sample volume of only 20 microliters is advantegous in particular when blood samples need to be collected from mice. Our results suggest that Heparin Red is a promising tool for the preclinical evaluation of sulfated polysaccharides with varying sulfation degrees in mouse and rat models., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 3 schemes, 4 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1712.03377

Heparins are are sulfated polysaccharides that have tremendous clinical importance as anticoagulant drugs. Monitoring of heparin blood levels can improve patient safety. In clinical practice, heparins are monitored indirectly by their inhibtory effect on coagulation proteases. Drawbacks of these established methods have stimulated the development of simple direct detection methods with cationic dyes that change absorbance or fluorescence upon binding of polyanionic heparin. Very few such dyes or assay kits, however, are commercially and widely available to a broad community of researchers and clinicians. This study compares the performance of three commercial dyes for the direct quantification of unfractionated heparin and the widely used low-molecular-weight heparin enoxaparin. Two traditional metachromatic dyes, Azure A and Toluidine Blue, and the more recently developed fluorescent dye Heparin Red were applied in a mix-and-read microplate assay to the same heparin-spiked human plasma samples. In the clinically most relevant concentration range below 1 IU (international units) per mL, only Heparin Red is a useful tool for the determination of both heparins. Heparin Red is at least 9 times more sensitive than the metachromatic dyes which can not reliably quantify the heparins in this concentration range. Unfractionated heparin levels between 2 and 10 IU per mL can be determined by all dyes, Heparin Red being the most sensitive., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure, 3 schemes, 1 table

Dextran sulfate is semi-synthetic, polydisperse sulfated polysaccharide with important applications in clinical practice, in the manufacturing of plasma derived protein therapeutics and in biomedical research. The sensitive detection of dextran sulfate is relevant to preclinical and clinical drug development projects, the quality control of pharmaceutic formulations, and the process control in plasma fractionation using dextran sulfate modified chromatographic columns. Most analytical methods for the sensitive detection of dextran sulfate require multistep protcols and have not been transferred into commercial formats. We describe here the direct quantification of dextran sulfate using the commercially available molecular probe Heparin Red, by a simple mix-and-read fluorescence assay. With a sensitive benchtop fluorimeter, a quantification limit of 310 picogram per mL dextran sulfate is achieved. This is superior by at least one order of magnitude to the quantification or detection limit of other reported methods. The outstanding simplicity and sensitivity establish Heparin Red as a new analytical tool for the determination of dextran sulfate., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 2 schemes, 2 tables

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a linear, polydisperse sulfated polysaccharide belonging to the glycosaminoglycan family. HS proteoglycans are ubiquitously found at the cell surface and extracellular matrix in animal species. HS is involved in the interaction with a wide variety of proteins and the regulation of many biological activities. In certain pathologic conditions, expression and shedding of HS proteoglycans is overregulated, or enzymatic degradation of HS in lysosomes is deficient, both leading to excess circulating free HS chains in blood plasma. HS has therefore been suggested as a biomarker for various severe disease states. The structural heterogeneity makes the quantification of heparan sulfate in complex matrices such as human plasma challenging. HS plasma levels are usually quantified by either disaccharide analysis or enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). Both methods require time-consuming multistep-protocols. We describe here the instant detection of heparan sulfate in spiked plasma samples by the Heparin Red Kit, a commercial mix-and-read fluorescence microplate assay. The method enables HS quantification in the low microgram per mL range without sample pretreatment. Heparin Red appears to be sufficiently sensitive for the detection of highly elevated HS levels as reported for mucopolysaccharidosis, graft versus host disease after transplantation, dengue infection or septic shock. This study is a significant step toward the development of a convenient and fast method for the quantification of HS in human plasma, with the potential to simplify the detection and advance the acceptance of HS as a biomarker., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 schemes, 5 tables

Heparin is an important anticoagulant drug, about one billion doses are produced annually. It is a polydisperse sulfated polysaccharide, and the inherent heterogeneity makes the analysis of heparin difficult. The global crisis resulting from adulterated heparin in 2008 has drawn renewed attention to the challenges that are associated with the quality control and characterization of this complex biological medicine from natural sources. The present study addresses the need for simple and user-friendly analytical methods for the fast and accurate quantification of heparin in complex matrices. Direct quantification of heparin in the low microgram per mL range was accomplished using a specific commercially available assay based on the fluorescent molecular probe Heparin Red, simply by mixing the heparin containing sample and a reagent solution in a 96-well microplate followed by fluorescence readout. A screening of typical impurities in raw heparin (selected other glycosaminoglycans, residual nucleic acids and proteins), related to the extraction from animal tissues, as well as of components of the urine matrix (inorganic salts, amino acids, trace proteins) revealed that these compounds even in large excess have no or very little effect on the accuracy of heparin determination. Heparin spike detection in urine, a biological multicomponent matrix, also showed good accuracy. We envision applications of this mix-and-read assay in the process and quality control in heparin manufacturing, but also in pharmacokinetic studies as a convenient tool for measuring of the urinary excretion of heparins., Comment: Article, 16 pages, 7 figures

Fucoidan is a generic term for a class of fucose rich, structurally diverse sulfated polysaccharides that are found in brown algae and other marine organisms. Depending on the species from which the fucoidan is extracted, a wide variety of biological activities including antitumor, antiinflammatory, immune-modulating, antiviral, antibacterial and pro- and anticoagulant activities has been described. Fucoidans have the advantage of low toxicity and oral bioavailibiity and are viable drug candidates, preclinical and pilot clinical trials show promising results. The availability of robust assays, in particular for analysing the blood levels of fucoidan, is a fundamental requirement for pharmacokinetic analysis in drug development projects. This contribution describes the application of a commercially availbale, protein-free fluorescent probe assay (Heparin Red) for the direct quantification of several fucoidans (from Fucus vesiculosus, Macrocystis pyrifera, and Undaria pinnatifida) in human plasma. By only minor adapation of the established protocol for heparin detection, a concentration range 0,5 to 20 microgram per mL fucoidan can be addressed. A preliminary analysis of matrix effects suggests acceptable interindividual variability and no interference by endogeneous chondroitin sulfate. This study identifies the Heparin Red assay as a simple, time-saving mix-and-read method for the quantification of fucoidans in human plasma., Comment: article, 15 pages, 2 schemes, 3 figures, 3 tables