Urinary l-kynurenine quantification and selective extraction through a molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction device

L-Kynurenine is an endogenous metabolite generated by the catabolic pathway of L-tryptophan and it could be a potential biomarker to test the efficacy of several checkpoint inhibitors that have already reached the clinical trials in the antitumor therapy. Thus, a molecularly imprinted polymer specific for the recognition of this metabolite was synthesized and used as innovative system in solid-phase extraction technique for the specific extraction and quantification of L-kynurenine in human urine. The off-line system was firstly tested on L-kynurenine standard solutions, allowing recoveries up to 97.7% (relative standard deviation = 2.2%) and then applied to fortified and deproteinated human urine samples, where a recovery of 84.1% (relative standard deviation = 3.1%) was obtained. The method was validated and it revealed a good linearity in the range of 0.157–20 μg/mL (r2 = 0.9992). The optimized procedure demonstrated a good feasibility on biological samples, allowing a ready quantification of L-kynurenine in the human urine, where the metabolite was found at a very low concentration (0.80 μg/mL). The extraction system developed could attract attention of pharmaceutical industries for L-kynurenine production as potential drug in the treatment of autoimmune disorders through its extraction and purification from biological matrixes.