Fit-for-purpose LC-MS/MS quantification of leukotoxin and leukotoxin diol in mouse plasma without sample pre-concentration

Development of a UPLC-MRM-based targeted proteomic method to profile subcellular organelle marker proteins from human liver tissues

Subcellular organelles have long been an interest in biochemical research and drug development as the isolation of those organelles can help to probe protein functions and elucidate drug disposition within the cell. Usually, the purity of isolated subcellular organelle fractions was determined using immunoblot analysis of subcellular organelle marker proteins, which can be labor-intensive and lack reproducibility due to antibody batch-to-batch variability. As such, a higher throughput and more robust method is needed. Here, a UPLC-MRM-based targeted proteomic method was developed for a panel of human organelle marker proteins and used to profile a series of sucrose fractions isolated from the protein extract of human liver tissues. The method was validated by comparing to the traditional immunoblot and determining subcellular localization of three case study proteins (CYP3A4, FcRn, and β2M) pertaining to the disposition of small molecule and biologic drugs. All three case study proteins were co-enriched with their corresponding subcellular protein marker, and complete recoveries were achieved from isolated fractions. This newly developed MRM method for the panel of human organelle marker proteins can potentially accelerate future intracellular drug disposition analysis and facilitate subcellular organelle quality assessment.

A Fast and Selective Approach for Profiling Vicinal Diols Using Liquid Chromatography-Post Column Derivatization-Double Precursor Ion Scanning Mass Spectrometry

Vicinal diols are important signaling metabolites of various inflammatory diseases, and some of them are potential biomarkers for some diseases. Utilizing the rapid reaction between diol and 6-bromo-3-pyridinylboronic acid (BPBA), a selective and sensitive approach was established to profile these vicinal diols using liquid chromatography-post column derivatization coupled with double precursor ion scan-mass spectrometry (LC-PCD-DPIS-MS). After derivatization, all BPBA-vicinal-diol esters gave a pair of characteristic isotope ions resulting from ⁷⁹Br and ⁸¹Br. The unique isotope pattern generated two characteristic fragment ions of m/z 200 and 202. Compared to a traditional offline derivatization technique, the new LC-PCD-DPIS-MS method retained the capacity of LC separation. In addition, it is more sensitive and selective than a full scan MS method. As an application, an in vitro study of the metabolism of epoxy fatty acids by human soluble epoxide hydrolase was tested. These vicinal-diol metabolites of individual regioisomers from different types of polyunsaturated fatty acids were easily identified. The limit of detection (LOD) reached as low as 25 nM. The newly developed LC-PCD-DPIS-MS method shows significant advantages in improving the selectivity and therefore can be employed as a powerful tool for profiling vicinal-diol compounds from biological matrices.