Pseudouridine detection improvement by derivatization with methyl vinyl sulfone and capillary HPLC-mass spectrometry.

A method is presented for improved detection of pseudouridine in nucleoside mixtures based on the specific derivatization with methyl vinyl sulfone followed by analysis by capillary HPLC-mass spectrometry. Reaction conditions were optimized in order to obtain the best yield and specificity. The method was successfully applied to different nucleoside mixtures.