Oligo-guanidine types of PHMG (polyhexamethylene guanide) and PGH (oligo (2- ethoxyethyl) guanidinium) are used as disinfectant

It is often used in various commercial products such as agents, lens detergents, humidifier cleaning. However, Humidifier disinfectant caused a significant number of death, which caused inhalation by the oligoguanidine compound in the air. It became clear that the cause was the appearance of lung disease such as lung fibrosis, which banned the use of these oligoguanidine-based substances in consumer chemicals.

The inhalation of oligoguanidine compounds sprayed in air through a humidifier was reported to cause unpredicted severe lung problems such as lung fibrosis. Following the fatal misuse of oligoguanidine chemicals in commercial consumer products, the toxicity of these oligomers have been intensively investigated. The biocidal effect is understood that the sticking of cationic guanidine or biguanidine moiety to the negatively charged phospholipids of cytoplasmic membrane results in the collapse of cells. Even though the fibrogenic mechanism of human lungs is still unclear, the toxicogenomics research showed that the PHMG-phosphate promotes the induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is known to be related to organ fibrosis.

In this study, we have optimized the quantitative LC-MS/MS analysis method for the oligoguanidines contained in commercial consumer products. Before anaysis commercial consumer products, we need to analysis standard materials.