Distinct Fragmentation Pathways of Anticancer Drugs Induced by Charge-Carrying Cations in the Gas Phase

What is the role of current mass spectrometry in pharmaceutical analysis?

The role of mass spectrometry (MS) has become more important in most application domains in recent years. Pharmaceutical analysis is specific due to its stringent regulation procedures, the need for good laboratory/manufacturing practices, and a large number of routine quality control analyses to be carried out. The role of MS is, therefore, very different throughout the whole drug development cycle. While it dominates within the drug discovery and development phase, in routine quality control, the role of MS is minor and indispensable only for selected applications. Moreover, its role is very different in the case of analysis of small molecule pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. Our review explains the role of current MS in the analysis of both small-molecule chemical drugs and biopharmaceuticals. Important features of MS-based technologies being implemented, method requirements, and related challenges are discussed. The differences in analytical procedures for small molecule pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals are pointed out. While a single method or a small set of methods is usually sufficient for quality control in the case of small molecule pharmaceuticals and MS is often not indispensable, a large panel of methods including extensive use of MS must be used for quality control of biopharmaceuticals. Finally, expected development and future trends are outlined.

Fragmentation Pathways of Cationized, Saturated, Short-Chain Triacylglycerols: Lithiated and Sodiated Tripropanoyl- and Trihexanoylglycerol

Many methods, often depending on tandem mass spectrometry, have been developed for analysis of complex mixtures of triacylglycerols (TAGs), especially in clinical diagnostics and food authentication. Understanding the fragmentation mechanisms of cationized TAGs has proved problematic. To obtain a better understanding of viable mechanisms, detailed studies including double- and triple-stage tandem mass spectrometry were made using electrospray ionization on lithiated and sodiated tripropanoyl- and trihexanoylglycerols. Density functional theory computations, including a functional parameterized for van der Waals interactions, were used to correlate computed energies with mass spectra. Losses of both a neutral salt and a neutral acid corresponding to a glycerol side chain were observed as major product ions in MS² experiments. Signal intensities at low collision energies correlated well with computed energies. However, an important difference between the lithiated and sodiated ions was the appearance of the sodium cation as a major fragmentation product. Computations on the product ions resulting from the loss of a neutral acid indicated multiple structures for the lithiated ions but mainly a single structure for the sodiated ions. The lithiated product ions could be fragmented further (pseudo-MS³) to give additional structural information, whereas the sodiated ions gave only m/z 23. The longer chain TAG, while giving a much less intense mass spectrum than the shorter chain TAG, gave comparable MS² and MS³ product ion spectra. Taken together, the spectral and computational work described herein offer a new and detailed pathway for collision-induced fragmentation of lithiated and sodiated saturated TAGs.