High-performance liquid chromatographic separation and measurement of various biogenic compounds possibly involved in the pathomechanism of Parkinson’s disease

The work presented here describes an optimised, reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method for separating 46 biogenic compounds, which, as neurotoxins or as their precursors or derivatives, may be relevant in the pathomechanism of Parkinson’s disease. In some cases, the physico–chemical properties of these substances are very similar, in other cases they differ greatly. In order to facilitate their detection in one chromatographic run, ion-pair chromatography was uniquely combined with a gradient elution. A diode array or a dual wavelength detector was used in combination with a fluorescence detector to verify the identity of the compounds.