Quantitation of Monophosphorylated Lipid A in the Oil-in-Water Adjuvant Delivery Systems Using Transesterification and GC-MS

Abstract Vaccine delivery systems play pivotal role in effective antigen delivery. These systems often contain adjuvants that stimulate specific immune response and are important for vaccines' efficacy and safety. Oil-in-water vaccine delivery lipid emulsion systems containing monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) as immune modulator have been extensively investigated in vaccine trials. Herein, we describe a simple orthogonal method, for quantitative measurement of MPLA in an oil-in-water lipid delivery system using direct transesterification reaction followed by gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. In this protocol, the transesterification reaction results in the release of fatty acid methyl esters followed by gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry–based targeted quantification of the specific 3-hydroxytetradecanoate fatty acid methyl ester to measure the concentration of MPLA in an oil-in-water lipid emulsion system.