Ryu Mochizuki,a Kyohei Higashi,b Yusuke Okamoto,a Hiroko Abe,c Hirotaro Iwase,c and To s h i h i ko Toi d a
a Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University; 1–8–1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260–8675, Japan
b Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science; 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278–8510, Japan
c Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University; 1–8–1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260–8670, Japan.
Chem. Pharm. Bull.67, 884–887 (2019). Received March 28, 2019; accepted May 22, 2019
Abstract: We developed a simple and sensitive HPLC method for the determination of selenocyanate (SeCN). The König reaction, which is generally used for the determination of cyanide and thiocyanate, was applied for the post-column detection, and using barbituric acid as a fluorogenic reagent made it possible to detect SeCN with high sensitivity. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 73.5 fmol and 245.1 fmol, respectively. Subsequently, the amounts of SeCN in human blood and in cultured cell samples were analyzed, and no SeCN was detected in human whole blood. Interestingly, we have found that some of the spiked SeCN decomposed to cyanide in human whole blood. Ascorbic acid suppressed the decomposition of SeCN to cyanide by reducing the ferric ion, which is typically involved in SeCN decomposition. Then, SeCN was detected in cultured HEK293 cells exposed to selenite. The established HPLC method with fluo-rescence detection of SeCN is useful for investigating small amounts of SeCN in biological samples.