Dual Fragmentation Isobaric Tags for Metabolomics

Isobaric tags typically leverage an a1 type fragmentation to produce constant mass reporter ions. While this motif allows for efficient reporter formation, isobaric tags lack structural diversity, which limits the number and type of isotopes that are synthetically available. Presented here are two examples of dual fragmentation isobaric tagging. The first example mimics the typical isobaric tag structure through trimethylamine neutral loss and cyclization. Subsequent fragmentation releases a constant mass reporter with high efficiency. This provides a route to create a variety of isobaric tags with regard to both the reporter and the balancer mass. The second example is a set of six-plex isobaric, thiol-reactive tags that produce constant mass reporters by a similar sequential fragmentation mechanism. A trimethylamine neutral loss allows for the incorporation of up to 13 total isotopes in the balancer region, while minimizing deuterium retention time shifts. A subsequent C-S bond cleavage produces a constant mass reporter in the low-mass region. The thiols investigated produced an average RSD of 14% and R² of 0.98 when analyzed as a six-plex injection. Thiol metabolism was disrupted using the glutamyl-cysteine synthetase inhibitor buthionine sulfoximine (BSO). Endothelial cells were incubated with BSO and showed significant decreases in glutathione and cysteinyl-glycine compared to control. Overall, a new method to generate constant mass reporters using a dual fragmentation scheme is presented.