Time-Domain-Based Methyl Proton NMR with Absolute Quantitation Ability for Targeted Metabolomics

In high-throughput scenarios of targeted metabolomics, it is a significant challenge to process complex NMR spectra with severely overlapping signals produced by metabolites with similar chemical structures. Traditional frequency-domain NMR is ineffective to some degree due to the low sensitivity and poor resolution, and the precision of quantitation is usually affected by poorly or inconsistently phased and baselined spectra. Here, we established a strategy based on time-domain NMR focusing on methyl protons for targeted metabolomics. The targeted metabolomics focusing on bufadienolides for varietal discrimination of three toad venoms was conducted to demonstrate the practicability of time-domain-based methyl proton NMR. It revealed that the signals could be precisely identified and quantitated with an signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of about 10 and a resolution of about 1.0 Hz. The sensitivity and resolution improvement make it particularly applicable in targeted metabolomics. The precise and absolute quantitation ability confirmed by triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (QqQ-MS) could further extend its application range. Importantly, the methyl group is common in metabolites with a relatively wide chemical shift range. Time-domain analysis could be conducted in common NMR software. This technique is very easy and convenient for general researchers when employed as a complementary alternative to traditional frequency-domain NMR, especially in the field of targeted metabolomics.