Quantification of C-polysaccharide in Streptococcus pneumoniae polysaccharides by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection.

: A sensitive method, using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) has been developed for measurement of the C-polysaccharide contamination in Streptococcus pneumoniae capsular polysaccharides, which are part of the polysaccharides based vaccines for the prevention of pneumococcal infections. This method, based on the quantification by HPAEC-PAD of the ribitol released by aqueous hydrofluoric acid (HF) followed by trifluoro acid hydrolysis (TFA) of the pneumococcal polysaccharides is simple and provides both a qualitative and quantitative method for control of the polysaccharides.