Global Urinary Volatolomics with (GC×)GC-TOF-MS

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Oncology

Background:

• Urinary volatolomics provides a noninvasive method for disease detection and monitoring.
• Current methods for volatile organic compound (VOC) profiling require optimization for broader coverage and reduced sample volume.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an improved methodology for global urinary volatolomic profiling.
• To enhance the number of detectable VOCs and simplify data analysis for disease biomarker discovery.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a multiphase sorbent for enhanced VOC extraction from urine.
• Employed a single, midpolar column gas chromatography (GC) assay and multidimensional GC (GC×GC).
• Implemented a tile-based approach for simplified data analysis and reduced urine volume (0.4 mL).

Main Results:

• Achieved substantially higher numbers of monitored VOCs compared to previous single-sorbent methods.
• GC×GC further enhanced biomarker discovery capabilities.
• Successfully demonstrated applicability in a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cohort, confirming previous findings and discovering new potential VOC biomarkers.

Conclusions:

• The improved urinary volatolomics methodology offers wider VOC coverage and increased sensitivity.
• This approach simplifies biomarker discovery and reduces sample requirements, advancing noninvasive disease diagnostics.
• The method shows significant potential for identifying novel VOCs indicative of diseases like pancreatic cancer.