Metabolomics is an omics technique aiming at qualitatively and quantitatively describing a metabolome by various analytical platforms. It is an indispensable component of modern systems biology. ...Microbial metabolomics can be roughly classified as metabolic footprint analysis and metabolic fingerprint analysis depending on the analyte origins. Both of them have been beneficial to microbiological research for different reasons. Mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques are popular analytical strategies prevailing in the metabolomics field. In this review, chromatography–mass-spectrometry-based microbial metabolomic analysis steps are summarized, including sample collection, metabolite extraction, instrument analysis, and data analysis. Moreover, their applications in some representative fields are discussed as examples. The aim of this review is to present briefly recent technical advances in mass-spectrometry-based analysis, and to highlight the value of modern applications of microbial metabolomics.
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Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and their hydroxylated metabolites (OH-PCBs) has been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the distribution of PCBs and OH-PCBs in the ...human brain has not been characterized. This study investigated the age-, sex-, and brain region-specific distribution of all 209 PCBs using gaschromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in neonatal (
= 7) and adult (
= 7) postmortem brain samples. OH-PCB analyses were performed by GC-MS/MS (as methylated derivatives) and, in a subset of samples, by nontarget liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (Nt-LCMS). Fourteen higher chlorinated PCB congeners were observed with a detection frequency >50%. Six lower chlorinated PCBs were detected with a detection frequency >10%. Higher chlorinated PCBs were observed with higher levels in samples from adult versus younger donors. PCB congener profiles from adult donors showed more similarities across brain regions and donors than younger donors. We also assess the potential neurotoxicity of the PCB residues in the human brain with neurotoxic equivalency (NEQ) approaches. The median ΣNEQs, calculated for the PCB homologues, were 40-fold higher in older versus younger donors. Importantly, lower chlorinated PCBs made considerable contributions to the neurotoxic potential of PCB residues in some donors. OH-PCBs were identified for the first time in a small number of human brain samples by GC-MS/MS and Nt-LCMS analyses, and all contained four or fewer chlorine.
The recent onslaught of mass spectrometry (MS) to measurements of steroid hormones, including demands that they should be the only acceptable method, has confused clinicians and scientists who have ...relied for more than 40 years on a variety of immunoassay (IA) methods in steroid hormone measurements. There is little doubt that MS methods with their superior specificity will be the future method of choice in many clinical and research applications of steroid hormone measurement. However, the majority of steroid measurements are currently, and will continue to be, carried out using various types of IAs for several reasons, including their technical ease, cost and availability of commercial reagents. Speedy replacement of all IAs with MS is an unrealistic and unnecessary goal, because the availability of MS measurements is limited by cost, need of expensive equipment, technical demands and lack of commercial applications. Furthermore, IAs have multiple well-known advantages that vindicate their continuing use. The purpose of this article is to elucidate the advantages and limitations of the MS and IA techniques from two angles, i.e. promotion of MS and defence of IA. The purpose of the text is to give the reader an unbiased view about the current state and future trends of steroid analysis and to help him/her choose the correct assay method to serve his/her diagnostic and research needs.
PASEF multiplies the sequencing speed without any loss in sensitivity and is implemented in the timsTOF Pro instrument introduced here. Sequencing speeds above 100 Hz enable single run proteome ...analysis at a depth of 6000 proteins, making the instrument particularly attractive for rapid and highly sensitive proteomics. Collisional cross sections can be determined with up to 0.1% precision and acquired on a scale of 100,000s, which opens exciting areas for proteomics exploration.
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Highlights
•Online PASEF achieves greater than 100 MS/MS per second at full sensitivity.•Accurate label-free quantification of over 6000 proteins in 2 h.•High throughput demonstrated on 50 ng digests measured in 5 min.•High-precision determination of 100,000 peptide collisional cross sections.
In bottom-up proteomics, peptides are separated by liquid chromatography with elution peak widths in the range of seconds, whereas mass spectra are acquired in about 100 microseconds with time-of-flight (TOF) instruments. This allows adding ion mobility as a third dimension of separation. Among several formats, trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) is attractive because of its small size, low voltage requirements and high efficiency of ion utilization. We have recently demonstrated a scan mode termed parallel accumulation - serial fragmentation (PASEF), which multiplies the sequencing speed without any loss in sensitivity (Meier et al., PMID: 26538118). Here we introduce the timsTOF Pro instrument, which optimally implements online PASEF. It features an orthogonal ion path into the ion mobility device, limiting the amount of debris entering the instrument and making it very robust in daily operation. We investigate different precursor selection schemes for shotgun proteomics to optimally allocate in excess of 100 fragmentation events per second. More than 600,000 fragmentation spectra in standard 120 min LC runs are achievable, which can be used for near exhaustive precursor selection in complex mixtures or accumulating the signal of weak precursors. In 120 min single runs of HeLa digest, MaxQuant identified more than 6,000 proteins without matching to a library and with high quantitative reproducibility (R > 0.97). Online PASEF achieves a remarkable sensitivity with more than 2,500 proteins identified in 30 min runs of only 10 ng HeLa digest. We also show that highly reproducible collisional cross sections can be acquired on a large scale (R > 0.99). PASEF on the timsTOF Pro is a valuable addition to the technological toolbox in proteomics, with a number of unique operating modes that are only beginning to be explored.
Fentanyl and related psychoactive substances are at the forefront of the opioid overdose crisis, for which a complete solution is not immediately obvious. Drug testing for harm reduction may be an ...effective approach to both reduce overdoses and importantly, engage people who use drugs (PWUD) with the medical system. Paper spray mass spectrometry (PS‐MS) is an ambient ionization strategy that is uniquely suited to address this complicated analytical task. This perspectives article presents the merits of PS‐MS, with a focus upon the current state of its use as a candidate drug checking strategy for harm reduction. PS‐MS is inherently sensitive and selective, with detection limits in the picogram range. It requires small drug samples (~1 mg) for quantitative drug testing, critical to encourage pre‐consumption measurements by PWUD in the context of a harm reduction strategy. Calibrations obtained in surrogate drug matrices containing highly concentrated primary drugs demonstrate comparable sensitivities, a wide calibration range, and minimal matrix effects. PS‐MS can be interfaced with high‐resolution MS for non‐targeted analysis, allowing the identification of novel psychoactive substances as they appear in street drugs. Individual quantitative PS‐MS measurements for drug testing can be done in 1 minute or less, resulting in high sample throughput. Significant advancement in mass spectrometer miniaturization and mobilization has concomitant benefits for direct, on‐site drug checking, such as reduced cost, simplified maintenance and ease of use by less skilled operators. While PS‐MS technology continues to rapidly advance, it is our opinion that PS‐MS can be utilized as an effective tool for harm reduction in the opioid overdose crisis.
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) offers fast and high‐resolution separation of charged analytes from small injection volumes. Coupled to mass spectrometry (MS), it represents a powerful analytical ...technique providing (exact) mass information and enables molecular characterization based on fragmentation. Although hyphenation of CE and MS is not straightforward, much emphasis has been placed on enabling efficient ionization and user‐friendly coupling. Though several interfaces are now commercially available, research on more efficient and robust interfacing with nano‐electrospray ionization (ESI), matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP) continues with considerable results. At the same time, CE‐MS has been used in many fields, predominantly for the analysis of proteins, peptides and metabolites. This review belongs to a series of regularly published articles, summarizing 248 articles covering the time between June 2016 and May 2018. Latest developments on hyphenation of CE with MS as well as instrumental developments such as two‐dimensional separation systems with MS detection are mentioned. Furthermore, applications of various CE‐modes including capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE), capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) and capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) coupled to MS in biological, pharmaceutical and environmental research are summarized.
Monitoring exhaled breath is a very attractive, noninvasive screening technique for early diagnosis of diseases, especially lung cancer. However, the technique provides insufficient accuracy because ...the exhaled air has many crucial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at very low concentrations (ppb level). We analyzed the breath exhaled by lung cancer patients and healthy subjects (controls) using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and performed a subsequent statistical analysis to diagnose lung cancer based on the combination of multiple lung cancer-related VOCs. We detected 68 VOCs as marker species using GC/MS analysis. We reduced the number of VOCs and used support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to classify the samples. We observed that a combination of five VOCs (CHN, methanol, CH₃CN, isoprene, 1-propanol) is sufficient for 89.0% screening accuracy, and hence, it can be used for the design and development of a desktop GC-sensor analysis system for lung cancer.
Metabolites are critical products and mediators of cellular and tissue function, and key signals in cell-to-cell, organ-to-organ and cross-organism communication. Many of these interactions are ...spatially segregated. Thus, spatial metabolomics can provide valuable insight into healthy tissue function and disease pathogenesis. Here, we review major mass spectrometry-based spatial metabolomics techniques and the biological insights they have enabled, with a focus on brain and microbiota function and on cancer, neurological diseases and infectious diseases. These techniques also present significant translational utility, for example in cancer diagnosis, and for drug development. However, spatial mass spectrometry techniques still encounter significant challenges, including artifactual features, metabolite annotation, open data, and ethical considerations. Addressing these issues represent the future challenges in this field.
•This review covers mass spectrometry-based spatial metabolomics techniques.•Spatial metabolomics provides significant insight into health and disease.•Emerging methods improve spatial resolution, visualization, and data integration.•Translational frontiers in clinical implementation and drug development.
An ambient method for rapid monitoring and quantitation of drugs of abuse in dried blood spots was developed using paper spray tandem mass spectrometry (PS-MS).
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