Metabolite profiling of human urine by CE-ESI-MS using separation electrolytes at low pH

Fast determination of harmala alkaloids in edible algae by capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry

The use of algae as a foodstuff is rapidly expanding worldwide from the East Asian countries, where they are also used for medical care. Harmala alkaloids (HAlk) are a family of bioactive compounds found in the extracts of some plants, including wakame (Undaria pinnatifida), an edible marine invasive algae. HAlks are based on a characteristic β-carboline structure with at least one amino ionizable group. In this work, we report the successful separation of a mixture of six HAlks (harmine, harmaline, harmol, harmalol, harmane, and norharmane) by capillary electrophoresis ion-trap mass spectrometry (CE-IT-MS) in less than 8 min. Optimum separation in fused-silica capillaries and detection sensitivity in positive-ion mode were achieved using a background electrolyte (BGE) with 25 mmol L(-1) ammonium acetate (pH 7.8) and 10% (v/v) methanol, and a sheath liquid with 60:40 (v/v) isopropanol-water and 0.05% (v/v) formic acid. The separation method was validated in terms of linearity, limits of detection and quantification, repeatability, and reproducibility. Later, a sample pretreatment was carefully optimized to determine HAlks in commercial wakame samples with excellent recovery and repeatability. For the complex wakame extracts, the MS-MS fragmentation patterns of the different HAlks were useful to ensure a reliable identification. The complete procedure was validated using the standard-addition calibration method, determining matrix effects on the studied compounds. Harmalol, harmine, and harmaline were naturally present in the samples and were quantified at very low concentrations, ranging from 7 to 24 μg kg(-1) dry algae.

CE-MS based on moving reaction boundary method for urinary metabolomic analysis of gastric cancer patients

There is still a lack of satisfactory tumor markers for gastric cancer (GasC). This study is aimed at optimizing parameters in CE-MS based on moving reaction boundary (MRB) so as to improve its sensitivity and stability, and at searching for potential tumor markers of GasC in patients' urine samples via MRB-CE-MS. In this study, several parameters of MRB-CE-MS were investigated and optimized in order to gain optimal stability, sensitivity, and specificity, and was afterwards evaluated as valid. Subsequently, urine samples from GasC patients and control subjects were subjected to MRB-CE-MS analysis under optimized conditions, which successfully distinguished GasC patients from controls, as well as early-stage patients from advanced stage patients. Differentiation performance was evaluated by area under the curve, which showed fine differential value between GasC patients and controls, as well as between early and advanced stage patients (area under the curve value 1.0 and 0.847, respectively). In conclusion, this study established a set of feasible and useful methodology in searching potential tumor markers in urine samples from GasC patients. Moreover, several amino acids have been recognized as potential tumor markers that deserve further investigation.

Looking back into the future: 30 years of metabolomics at TNO

Metabolites have played an essential role in our understanding of life, health, and disease for thousands of years. This domain became much more important after the concept of metabolism was discovered. In the 1950s, mass spectrometry was coupled to chromatography and made the technique more application-oriented and allowed the development of new profiling technologies. Since 1980, TNO has performed system-based metabolic profiling of body fluids, and combined with pattern recognition has led to many discoveries and contributed to the field known as metabolomics and systems biology. This review describes the development of related concepts and applications at TNO in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, nutritional, and microbiological fields, and provides an outlook for the future.

Urine Metabolite Profiling of Human Colorectal Cancer by Capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry Based on MRB

Aim. The study was to investigate the metabolic profile of urine metabolites and to elucidate their clinical significance in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods. Colorectal cancers from early stage and advanced stage were used in this study. Urine samples of colorectal cancer patients and healthy adults were collected and subjected to capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry based on moving reaction boundary analysis. The metabolic data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 to find urinary biomarkers for colorectal cancer. Results. The results indicated that the urine metabolic profiling of colorectal cancer patients had significant changes compared with the normal controls, and there were also differences between early stage and advanced colorectal cancer patients. Compared with the control group, the levels of isoleucine, valine, arginine, lactate acid and leucine increased (P < 0.05), but those of histidine, methionine, serine, aspartic acid, citric acid, succinate, and malic acid decreased in urine samples from colorectal cancer (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the levels of isoleucine and valine were lower in urine of patients with advanced colorectal cancer than those in early stage colorectal cancer (P < 0.05). Conclusion. The technique of capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry based on MRB could reveal the significant metabolic alterations during progression of colorectal cancer, and the method is feasible and may be useful for the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.

Capillary electrophoresis as a metabolomics tool for non-targeted fingerprinting of biological samples

Metabolomics, understood as a data driven strategy trying to find markers of a situation under study without a priori hypothesis, has rapidly caught the attention and evolved from the simple pattern recognition strategy, which was a great innovation at its origins, to the interest for the final identification of markers responsible for class separation, i.e., from data to knowledge. Due to differences in physico-chemical properties and concentrations of the metabolites, but also due to differences in matrix properties, cross-platform approaches are proving to increase the capability of information. Once more techniques do not compete. This is the scene where capillary electrophoresis (CE) has its niche to provide information mainly on polar or ionic compounds in biological fluids. General advantages and disadvantages of CE for sample fingerprinting will be discussed and methods will be classified depending on the detection system (UV or MS) as this strongly affects all the conditions. Recent developments will be presented in different biological fluids, although urine is without a doubt the preferred sample for CE analysis.

Biomarker discovery in biological specimens (plasma, hair, liver and kidney) of diabetic mice based upon metabolite profiling using ultra-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

BACKGROUND

The number of diabetic patients has recently been increasing worldwide. Diabetes is a multifactorial disorder based on environmental factors and genetic background. In many cases, diabetes is asymptomatic for a long period and the patient is not aware of the disease. Therefore, the potential biomarker(s), leading to the early detection and/or prevention of diabetes mellitus, are strongly required. However, the diagnosis of the prediabetic state in humans is a very difficult issue, because the lifestyle is variable in each person. Although the development of a diagnosis method in humans is the goal of our research, the extraction and structural identification of biomarker candidates in several biological specimens (i.e., plasma, hair, liver and kidney) of ddY strain mice, which undergo naturally occurring diabetes along with aging, were carried out based upon a metabolite profiling study.

METHODS

The low-molecular-mass compounds including metabolites in the biological specimens of diabetic mice (ddY-H) and normal mice (ddY-L) were globally separated by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) using different reversed-phase columns (i.e., T3-C18 and HS-F5) and detected by electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS). The biomarker candidates related to diabetes mellitus were extracted from a multivariate statistical analysis, such as an orthogonal partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), followed by a database search, such as ChemSpider, KEGG and HMDB.

RESULTS

Many metabolites and unknown compounds in each biological specimen were detected as the biomarker candidates related to diabetic mellitus. Among them, the elucidation of the chemical structures of several possible metabolites, including more than two biological specimens, was carried out along with the comparison of the tandem MS/MS analyses using authentic compounds. One metabolite was clearly identified as N-acetyl-L-leucine based upon the MS/MS spectra and the retention time on the chromatograms.

CONCLUSIONS

N-acetyl-L-leucine is an endogenous compound included in all biological specimens (plasma, hair, liver and kidney). Therefore, this metabolite appears to be a potential biomarker candidate related to diabetes. Although the structures of other biomarker candidates have still not yet determined, the present approach based upon a metabolite profiling study using UPLC-ESI-TOF-MS could be helpful for understanding the abnormal state of various diseases.

Practical analytical approach for the identification of biomarker candidates in prediabetic state based upon metabonomic study by ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

The number of diabetic patients has recently been increasing worldwide. Thus, the discovery of potential diabetic biomarker(s), leading to the early detection and/or prevention of diabetes mellitus, is strongly required. The diagnosis of the prediabetic state in humans is a very difficult issue because of the lifestyle differences in each person and ethical consideration. Upon the basis of these considerations, animal experiments using ddY strain mice (ddY-H), which undergo naturally occurring diabetes along with age, were carried out in this study. Biomarker discovery based upon a metabonome study is now quite common, the same as that in the proteome analysis. Reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has mainly been used for the extensive analysis of low-molecular mass compounds including metabolites. The metabolites in the plasma of diabetic mice (ddY-H) and normal mice (ddY-L) were exhaustively separated and detected by ultraperformance liquid chromatography along with electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-TOF-MS) using T3-C18 and HS-F5 columns. The biomarker candidates related to diabetes mellitus were extracted from the metabolite profiling of ddY-H and ddY-L at 5, 9 13, and 20 weeks old using a multivariate statistical analysis such as orthogonal partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Various metabolites and unknown compounds were detected as biomarker candidates related to diabetic mellitus. Furthermore, the concentration of several metabolites on Lysine biosynthesis and Lysine degradation pathways were remarkably changed between the 9-week old ddY-H and ddY-L mice. Because a couple of biomarker candidates related to the prediabetic state were identified using the present approach, the metabolite profiling study could be helpful for understanding the abnormal state of various diseases.

The design and synthesis of alanine-based indolicidin derivatives with identical physicochemical properties and their separation using capillary electrophoresis

Four novel alanine-based indolicidin peptide derivatives were designed containing one WPW motif and two alanine residues, resulting in peptides of similar sequence. The separation of these peptides with identical physicochemical properties including molar mass, charge, and secondary structure as characterized by circular dichroism spectroscopy is very difficult; and the separation of peptides with differing physicochemical properties has only previously been reported. Capillary electrophoresis parameters such as separation buffer concentration, separation buffer pH, capillary length, and separation voltage were investigated to optimize the analysis. Using optimized conditions of a background electrolyte containing 5 mM formic acid of pH 2.0, total capillary length of 51 cm and a voltage of 10 kV enabled a baseline separation of the four peptides. The relative standard deviation of the peak areas and migration times for method repeatability (n = 3) were found to be lower than 8% and 3%, respectively. In addition, reasoning for the separation of these peptides is proposed based on the acidity of the formic acid buffer and the hydrophobic grouping of the tryptophan residues in the peptide primary sequence.

Metabonomics study of liver cancer based on ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with HILIC and RPLC separations

In this study, urinary metabolites from liver cancer patients and healthy volunteers were studied by a metabonomic method based on ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Both hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) were used to separate the urinary metabolites. Principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares to latent structure-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were built to separate the healthy volunteers from the liver cancer patients and to find compounds that are expressed in significantly different amounts between the two populations. 21 metabolite ions were considered as potential biomarkers according to the Variable importance in the Project (VIP) value and S-plot. Compared with RPLC, a more sensitive and stable response can be recorded in HILIC mode due to the high content of organic solvent used. Moreover, the liver cancer group and the healthy volunteers can be better separated based on the data from the HILIC separation, which indicates that HILIC is suitable for urinary metabonomic analysis. In HILIC mode, several polar compounds related to arginine and proline metabolism, alanine and aspartate metabolism, lysine degradation, nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism were found to be significantly changed in the concentrations of the two different populations: healthy and cancer. In contrast, in RPLC mode, these changed compounds are related to fatty acids oxidation.

Mass spectrometry in systems biology: an overview

As an emerging field, systems biology is currently the talk of the town, which challenges our philosophy in comprehending biology. Instead of the reduction approach advocated in molecular biology, systems biology aims at systems-level understanding of correlations among molecular components. Such comprehensive investigation requires massive information from the "omics" cascade demanding high-throughput screening techniques. Being one of the most versatile analytical methods, mass spectrometry has already been playing a significant role at this early stage of systems biology. In this review, we documented the advances in modern mass spectrometry technologies as well as nascent inventions. Recent applications of mass spectrometry-based techniques and methodologies in genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics will be further elaborated individually. Undoubtedly, more applications of mass spectrometry in systems biology can be expected in the near future.

CE-ESI-MS of biological anions in plastic capillaries at high pH

In this study, the potential of poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA, Plexiglas) and polyether ether ketone (PEEK) tubing for CE-ESI-MS separations of anions at high pH values was examined. A set of model compounds of biological interest was used to investigate the main operational parameters for CE-ESI-MS, such as the sheath-flow interface design, the polarity of the ionization voltage, the use of ammonia-based separation electrolytes, and the sheath liquid composition. Optimum separations and detection sensitivities in negative ESI mode were obtained using a running electrolyte of 75 mM of ammonia at pH 11 and a sheath liquid of 60:40 v/v or 75:25 v/v isopropanol/water with 0.5% v/v of ammonia. At these experimental conditions, PMMA and PEEK capillaries show good hydrolytic stabilities and lower EOF values than fused-silica columns. Better separation resolutions were obtained with PMMA capillary, but this plastic rapidly swelled and bled because of its limited chemical resistance to the sheath liquid. PMMA columns equipped with a fused-silica tip were used for a safer exposure to the sheath liquid, but the inner surface of the fused-silica tips had limited stability at pH 11. On the other hand, good separations and reproducibility on migration times and peak areas were obtained using PEEK capillaries without capillary column deterioration.