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Large Scale Non-targeted Metabolomic Profiling of Serum by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry UPLC-MS
Published on: March 14, 2013
Improved data-dependent acquisition for untargeted metabolomics using gas-phase fractionation with staggered mass
1State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau , Taipa, Macao 999078, China.
This study introduces staggered gas-phase fractionation (sGPF), an improved data-dependent acquisition method for untargeted metabolomics. sGPF enhances MS2 coverage by enabling more homogeneous precursor ion selection, significantly boosting metabolite identification in complex samples.
Area of Science:
- Analytical Chemistry
- Metabolomics
- Mass Spectrometry
Background:
- Data-dependent acquisition (DDA) in mass spectrometry is limited by the inherent MS2 rate, restricting untargeted metabolomics.
- Top-n based DDA only analyzes a small fraction of ions, hindering comprehensive analysis of complex metabolomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate an improved DDA method for untargeted metabolomics.
- To enhance MS2 coverage and metabolite identification using gas-phase fractionation with staggered mass ranges (sGPF).
Main Methods:
- Implemented staggered gas-phase fractionation (sGPF) with multiplexed, discrete m/z segments.
- Compared five fraction levels and two staggering strategies (sGPFa, sGPFb) for human urinary metabolite characterization.
- Utilized an inclusion list with discontinuous m/z ranges to achieve sGPF.
Main Results:
- The sGPFb8 strategy achieved the highest MS2 coverage in both targeted and untargeted comparisons.
- sGPFb demonstrated a 15.0-36.6% increase in MS2 triggering rate over conventional GPF.
- sGPFb8 showed a 46.9% increase in untargeted screening performance over GPF8, particularly for phase II metabolites and carboxylates.
Conclusions:
- sGPF significantly improves MS2 coverage and metabolite identification in untargeted metabolomics compared to conventional GPF.
- The method's superiority is attributed to reduced concurrent precursor ions and increased relative ion intensity ranks.
- sGPF represents a promising advancement for comprehensive metabolomic profiling.
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