Development and validation of a simple LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantitative determination of trimethylamine-N-oxide and branched chain amino acids in human serum

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry

PubMed ID

30552494

Publisher

Springer Verlag

School

School of Science / School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre for Integrative Metabolomics and Computational Biology

RAS ID

28775

Comments

Le, T. T., Shafaei, A., Genoni, A., Christophersen, C., Devine, A., Lo, J., . . . Boyce, M. C. (2019). Development and validation of a simple LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantitative determination of trimethylamine-N-oxide and branched chain amino acids in human serum. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 411(5), 1019-1028. Available here

Abstract

Serum branched chain amino acids and trimethylamine-N-oxide are monitored as potential indicators of diabetes and cardiovascular health respectively. A rapid method for their simultaneous determination using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry is described here. Branched chain amino acids and trimethylamine-N-oxide were quantified based on their specific MS/MS fragments using a selected reaction monitoring approach. A number of columns were tested for their ability to separate the analytes. A C18-PFP column separated the analytes in just 4 minutes, and resulted in excellent peak shape and retention time repeatability, and was therefore chosen as the optimal column. A second column, the Intrada Amino Acid column, was chosen for comparison and validation experiments as it provided an orthogonal separation mechanism. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy were less than 12% for trimethylamine-N-oxide and less than 6% for the branched chain amino acids. Recoveries, where serum was spiked with three different concentrations of the analytes, ranged from 97 to 113%. The LODs and LOQs for trimethylamine-N-oxide were 1 and 6 ng/mL, for leucine and isoleucine were 4 and 8 ng/mL, and for valine were 5 and 15 ng/mL, respectively. The C18-PFP column method was validated using the Intrada Amino Acid column method and percentage agreement for all four analytes was within 10%. Sample preparation was minimal, and use of labelled internal standards accounted for matrix effects. The method was successfully applied to human plasma samples. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

DOI

10.1007/s00216-018-1522-8

Access Rights

subscription content

Share

 
COinS