Fast and sensitive flow-injection mass spectrometry metabolomics by analyzing sample-specific ion distributions.

ABSTRACT: Mass spectrometry based metabolomics is a widely used approach in biomedical research. However, current methods coupling mass spectrometry with chromatography are time-consuming and not suitable for high-throughput analysis of thousands of samples. An alternative approach is flow-injection mass spectrometry (FI-MS) in which samples are directly injected to the ionization source. Here, we show that the sensitivity of Orbitrap FI-MS metabolomics methods is limited by ion competition effect. We describe an approach for overcoming this effect by analyzing the distribution of ion m/z values and computationally determining a series of optimal scan ranges. This enables reproducible detection of ~9,000 and ~10,000 m/z features in metabolomics and lipidomics analysis of serum samples, respectively, with a sample scan time of ~15?s and duty time of ~30?s; a ~50% increase versus current spectral-stitching FI-MS. This approach facilitates high-throughput metabolomics for a variety of applications, including biomarker discovery and functional genomics screens.

SUBMITTER: Sarvin B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7314751 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature