A micro salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to determine anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol in rat brain samples

Advances in targeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods for endocannabinoid and N-acylethanolamine quantification in biological matrices: A systematic review

Liquid chromatography paired with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is the gold standard in measurement of endocannabinoid concentrations in biomatrices. We conducted a systematic review of literature to identify advances in targeted LC-MS/MS methods in the period 2017-2024. We found that LC-MS/MS methods for endocannabinoid quantification are relatively consistent both across time and across biomatrices. Recent advances have primarily been in three areas: (1) sample preparation techniques, specific to the chosen biomatrix; (2) the range of biomatrices tested, recently favoring blood matrices; and (3) the breadth of endocannabinoid and endocannabinoid-like analytes incorporated into assays. This review provides a summary of the recent literature and a guide for researchers looking to establish the best methods for quantifying endocannabinoids in a range of biomatrices.

Coconut shell biochar application in liquid-solid microextraction of triazine herbicides from multi-media environmental samples

A rapid, fast, widely applicable liquid-solid microextraction and purification method of triazine herbicides (TRZHs) in muti-media samples using salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) combined with self-assembled monolithic spin columns-solid phase micro extraction (MSC-SPME) was developed. Environmentally friendly coconut shell biochar (CSB) was used as the adsorbents of MSC-SPME. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was the separation and determination method. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms were investigated to indicate the interaction between CSB and TRZHs. Several parameters influencing the liquid-solid microextraction efficiency, such as sample pH, salting-out solution volume and pH, sample loading speed, elution speed, elution ratio and volume of eluent were systematically investigated with the aid of orthogonal design. The whole extraction process was operated within 10 min. Under the optimum extraction and determination conditions, good linearities for three TRZHs were obtained in a range of 0.10-200.00 ng mL^-1, with linear coefficients (R²) greater than 0.999. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) were in the range of 6.99-11.00 ng L^-1 and 23.33-36.68 ng L^-1, respectively. The recoveries of the three TRZHs in multi-media environmental samples were ranged from 69.00% to 124.72%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 0.43%. This SALLE-MSC-SPME-UPLC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to the determination of TRZHs in environmental and food samples and exhibited the advantages of high efficiency and sensitivity, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Compared with the methods published before, CSB-MSC was green, rapid, easy-operated, and reduced the whole cost of the experiment; SALLE combined MSC-SPME eliminated the matrix references effectively; what's more, the SALLE-MSC-SPME-UPLC-MS/MS method could be applied to various sample without complicated sample pretreatment procedure.

Lipidomics of Bioactive Lipids in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases: Where Are We?

Lipids are not only constituents of cellular membranes, but they are also key signaling mediators, thus acting as “bioactive lipids”. Among the prominent roles exerted by bioactive lipids are immune regulation, inflammation, and maintenance of homeostasis. Accumulated evidence indicates the existence of a bidirectional relationship between the immune and nervous systems, and lipids can interact particularly with the aggregation and propagation of many pathogenic proteins that are well-renowned hallmarks of several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD) diseases. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about the presence and quantification of the main classes of endogenous bioactive lipids, namely glycerophospholipids/sphingolipids, classical eicosanoids, pro-resolving lipid mediators, and endocannabinoids, in AD and PD patients, as well as their most-used animal models, by means of lipidomic analyses, advocating for these lipid mediators as powerful biomarkers of pathology, diagnosis, and progression, as well as predictors of response or activity to different current therapies for these neurodegenerative diseases.