High Confidence Shotgun Lipidomics Using Structurally Selective Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Lipidomics

Background:

• Shotgun lipidomics is crucial for understanding cellular lipid profiles.
• Liquid chromatography (LC) is a common separation technique but faces challenges with isomeric lipid resolution.
• Ion mobility (IM) offers a complementary or alternative gas-phase separation strategy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of an untargeted ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) workflow.
• To demonstrate the utility of IM-MS for high-confidence lipid identification.
• To highlight the role of collision cross section (CCS) values in lipidomics.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a commercial drift tube ion mobility-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (IM-QTOF).
• Implementing an untargeted IM-MS workflow for lipid analysis.
• Acquiring and analyzing ion mobility and mass spectrometry data.

Main Results:

• Ion mobility separation effectively resolves isomeric lipids.
• Collision cross section (CCS) values serve as valuable molecular descriptors.
• The IM-MS workflow enhances confidence in lipid identification.

Conclusions:

• Ion mobility-mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for untargeted lipidomics.
• Integrating IM into lipidomics workflows improves lipid identification accuracy.
• This approach offers a high-throughput alternative or supplement to traditional LC-based methods.