Incorporating Electro-Epoxidation into Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Simultaneous Analysis of Negatively and Positively Charged Unsaturated Glycerophospholipids

Mass filtering combined with photochemical derivatization enables high throughput mass spectrometric analysis of unsaturated phosphatidylcholine isomers

Phosphatidylcholines (PCs) are closely related to coronary heart disease, such as myocardial infarction. The analysis of the deep structure of PCs is of great significance for exploring the effects of exercise rehabilitation and lipid metabolism. Here, we present a mass filtering combined with photochemical derivatization method for rapid screening and accurate identification of the CC position and sn-location isomer of PCs. This method is simple to execute and easily implementable for routine analysis. The accurate qualitative and quantitative analysis of PCs and isomers facilitates the discovery of biomarkers for exercise rehabilitation of patients with myocardial infarction.

Interfacial Electromigration for Analysis of Biofluid Lipids in Small Volumes

Lipids are important biomarkers within the field of disease diagnostics and can serve as indicators of disease progression and predictors of treatment effectiveness. Although lipids can provide important insight into how diseases initiate and progress, mass spectrometric methods for lipid characterization and profiling are limited due to lipid structural diversity, particularly the presence of various lipid isomers. Moreover, the difficulty of handling small-volume samples exacerbates the intricacies of biological analyses. In this work, we have developed a strategy that electromigrates a thin film of a small-volume biological sample directly to the air-liquid interface formed at the tip of a theta capillary. Importantly, we seamlessly integrated in situ biological lipid extraction with accelerated chemical derivatization, enabled by the air-liquid interface, and conducted isomeric structural characterization within a unified platform utilizing theta capillary nanoelectrospray ionization mass spectrometry, all tailored for small-volume sample analysis. We applied this unified platform to the analysis of lipids from small-volume human plasma and Alzheimer's disease mouse serum samples. Accelerated electro-epoxidation of unsaturated lipids at the interface allowed us to characterize lipid double-bond positional isomers. The unique application of electromigration of a thin film to the air-liquid interface in combination with accelerated interfacial reactions holds great potential in small-volume sample analysis for disease diagnosis and prevention.

Catalyst-Free Accelerated Three-Component Synthesis of Betti Bases in Microdroplets

Due to their important roles in medicine and asymmetric metal catalysis, the formation of Betti bases has attracted wide interest in organic chemical community. Traditional multicomponent reaction methods for synthesizing Betti bases normally require long reaction times under harsh conditions (high temperature, microwave or ultrasonic irradiation, etc.) in the presence of various catalysts. In this study, we developed a mild, highly efficient and environmentally friendly method to synthesize Betti bases without the use of any catalysts in microdroplets. The Betti reaction was accelerated by 6.53×10³ in microdroplets by comparing the measured rate constant in bulk. Fifteen Betti bases were synthesized by the microdroplet method using a variety of aldehydes, naphthols and amines with 68-98 % yields at a scaled-up amount of 1.9 g h^-1 . Overall it is an attractive alternative to classic organic synthesis for the construction of Betti bases and derivatives.

One-Step Regio- and Stereoselective Electrochemical Synthesis of Orexin Receptor Antagonist Oxidative Metabolites

Synthesis of drug metabolites, which often have complex structures, is an integral step in the evaluation of drug candidate metabolism, pharmacokinetic (PK) properties, and safety profiles. Frequently, such synthetic endeavors entail arduous, multiple-step de novo synthetic routes. Herein, we present the one-step Shono-type electrochemical synthesis of milligrams of chiral α-hydroxyl amide metabolites of two orexin receptor antagonists, MK-8133 and MK-6096, as revealed by a small-scale (pico- to nano-mole level) reaction screening using a lab-built online electrochemistry (EC)/mass spectrometry (MS) (EC/MS) platform. The electrochemical oxidation of MK-8133 and MK-6096 was conducted in aqueous media and found to produce the corresponding α-piperidinols with exclusive regio- and stereoselectivity, as confirmed by high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) characterization of products. Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the exceptional regio- and stereoselectivity for this electrochemical oxidation are governed by more favorable energetics of the transition state, leading to the preferred secondary carbon radical α to the amide group and subsequent steric hindrance associated with the U-shaped conformation of the cation derived from the secondary α-carbon radical, respectively.

Characterization of glycerophospholipids at multiple isomer levels via Mn(II)-catalyzed epoxidation

Characterization of glycerophospholipid isomers is of significant importance as they play different roles in physiological and pathological processes. In this work, we present a novel and bifunctional derivatization method utilizing Mn(II)-catalyzed epoxidation to simultaneously identify carbon-carbon double bond (CC bond)- and stereonumbering (sn)-positional isomers of phosphatidylcholine. Mn(II) coordinates with picolinic acid and catalyzes epoxidation of unsaturated lipids by peracetic acid. Collision-induced dissociation (CID) of the epoxides generates diagnostic ions that can be used to locate CC bond positions. Meanwhile, CID of Mn(II) ion-lipid complexes produces characteristic ions for determination of sn positions. This bifunctional derivatization takes place in seconds, and the diagnostic ions produced in CID are clear and easy to interpret. Moreover, relative quantification of CC bond-and sn-positional isomers was achieved. The capability of this method in identifying lipids at multiple isomer levels was shown using lipid standards and lipid extracts from complex biological samples.

Voltage-Controlled Divergent Cascade of Electrochemical Reactions for Characterization of Lipids at Multiple Isomer Levels Using Mass Spectrometry

Cascading divergent reactions in a single system is highly desirable for their intrinsic efficiency and potential to achieve multilevel structural characterization of complex biomolecules. In this work, two electrochemical reactions, interfacial electro-epoxidation and cobalt anodic corrosion, are divergently cascaded in nanoelectrospray (nESI) and can be switched at different voltages. We applied these reactions to lipid identification at multiple isomer levels using mass spectrometry (MS), which remains a great challenge in structural lipidomics. The divergent cascade reactions in situ derivatize lipids to produce epoxidized lipids and cobalt-adducted lipids at different voltages. These lipids are then fragmented upon low-energy collision-induced dissociation (CID), generating diagnostic fragments to indicate C═C locations and sn-positions that cannot be achieved by the low-energy CID of native lipids. We have demonstrated that lipid structural isomers show significantly different profiles in the analysis of healthy and cancerous mouse prostate samples using this strategy. The application of divergent cascade reactions in lipid identification allows the four-in-one analysis of lipid headgroups, fatty acyl chains, C═C locations, and sn-positions simply by tuning the nESI voltages within a single experiment. This feature as well as its low sample consumption, no need for an extra apparatus, and quantitative analysis capability show its great potential in lipidomics.

Enhancing the Signal-to-Noise of Diagnostic Fragment Ions of Unsaturated Glycerophospholipids via Precursor Exclusion Ultraviolet Photodissociation Mass Spectrometry (PEx-UVPD-MS)

Understanding and elucidating the diverse structures and functions of lipids has motivated the development of many innovative tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) strategies. Higher-energy activation methods, such as ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD), generate unique fragment ions from glycerophospholipids that can be used to perform in-depth structural analysis and facilitate the deconvolution of isomeric lipid structures in complex samples. Although detailed characterization is central to the correlation of lipid structure to biological function, it is often impeded by the lack of sufficient instrument sensitivity for highly bioactive but low-abundance phospholipids. Here, we present precursor exclusion (PEx) UVPD, a simple yet powerful technique to enhance the signal-to-noise (S/N) of informative low-abundance fragment ions produced from UVPD of glycerophospholipids. Through the exclusion of the large population of undissociated precursor ions with an MS3 strategy, the S/N of diagnostic fragment ions from PC 18:0/18:2(9Z, 12Z) increased up to an average of 13x for PEx-UVPD compared to UVPD alone. These enhancements were extended to complex mixtures of lipids from bovine liver extract to confidently identify 35 unique structures using liquid chromatography PEx-UVPD. This methodology has the potential to advance lipidomics research by offering deeper structure elucidation and confident identification of biologically active lipids.

Investigation of Tryptic Protein Digestion in Microdroplets and in Bulk Solution

Recent studies have shown that ultrafast enzymatic digestion of proteins can be achieved in microdroplet within 250 μs. Further investigation of peptides resulting from microdroplet digestion (MD) would be necessary to evaluate it as an alternative to the conventional bulk digestion for bottom-up and biotherapeutic protein characterization. Herein we examined and compared protein tryptic digestion in both MD and bulk solution. In the case of MD of β-lactoglobulin B, the preservation of long peptides was observed due to the short digestion time. In addition, MD is applicable to digest both high- and low-abundance proteins in mixture. In the case of digesting NIST 8671 mAb antibody containing a low level of commonly encountered host cell protein (HCP) PLBL2 (mAb:PLBL2 = 100:1 by weight), MD produced lower levels of digestion-induced chemical modifications of asparagine/glutamine deamidation, compared with overnight digestion. No significant difference between MD and bulk digestion was observed in terms of trypsin digestion specificity based on examination of semi- and unspecific-cleaved peptides. Our study suggests that MD, a fast digestion approach, could be adopted for bottom-up proteomics research and for peptide mapping of mAbs to characterize site-specific deamidation and glycosylation, for the purpose of development of biopharmaceuticals.

Direct Phosphonylation of N-Phenyltetrahydroisoquinolines in Microdroplets

Because of their unique properties and high biological activities, organophosphorus compounds have been used worldwide in agricultural, industrial, medicinal, and veterinary applications. Conventional strategies for direct phosphonylation suffer from the usage of stoichiometric or excessive metallic or nonmetallic catalysts and long reaction times under harsh conditions, leading to a strong desire for environment-friendly protocols for phosphonylation. A protocol for the accelerated phosphonylation of N-phenyltetrahydroisoquinolines in minutes was developed without the use of any catalyst in microdroplets. The phosphonylation process was completed (>85% yields) in 10 min at 40 °C using 0.8 equiv 2,3-dicyano-5,6-dichlorobenzoquinone as the oxidant and acetonitrile as the solvent. The microdroplet phosphonylation strategy showed good suitability to alkyl phosphites and N-phenyltetrahydroisoquinolines bearing electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substitutes, and the yields of the microdroplet reaction were much greater than those of the bulk (accelerated by two orders of magnitude from the ratio of the rate constants using the microdroplet and the bulk method). Furthermore, microdroplet phosphonylation can be scaled up to a 1-phenyl-2-dimethylphosphonite-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline amount of 510 mg h^-1 by spraying 0.1 mol L^-1 N-phenyltetrahydroisoquinoline at 300 μL min^-1. These figures of merit make it a promising alternative to classic organic methodologies for the synthesis of organophosphorus compounds.

Metabolomics and Molecular Networking to Characterize the Chemical Space of Four Momordica Plant Species

Momordica plant species (Cucurbitaceae), have been used for centuries in traditional medicine and for nutritional purposes. Plants from this family are thus claimed to be phytochemically rich, representing an inexhaustible source of natural products. However, the chemical space of these Momordica species has not yet been fully decoded, and due to the inherent complexity of plant metabolomes, the characterization of the Momordica phytochemistry remains challenging. Thus, in this study we propose the use of molecular networking to unravel the molecular families within the metabolomes of four Momordica species (M. cardiospermoides, M. balsamina, M. charantia and M. foetida) and highlight the relevance of molecular networking in exploring the chemotaxonomy of these plants. In silico annotation tools (Network Annotation Propagation and DEREPLICATOR) and an unsupervised substructure identification tool (MS2LDA) were also explored to complement the classical molecular networking output and integration using MolNetEnhancer within GNPS. This allowed for the visualisation of chemical classes and the variety of substructures within the molecular families. The use of computational tools in this study highlighted various classes of metabolites, such as a wide range of flavonoids, terpenoids and lipids. Herein, these species are revealed to be phytochemically rich plants consisting of many biologically active metabolites differentially distributed within the different species, with the metabolome of M. cardiospermoides dereplicated in this paper for the first time.

Lipid profiling suggests species specificity and minimal seasonal variation in Pacific Green and Hawksbill Turtle plasma

In this study, we applied multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-profiling to explore the relative ion intensity of lipid classes in plasma samples from sea turtles in order to profile lipids relevant to sea turtle physiology and investigate how dynamic ocean environments affect these profiles. We collected plasma samples from foraging green (Chelonia mydas, n = 28) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata, n = 16) turtles live captured in North Pacific Costa Rica in 2017. From these samples, we identified 623 MRMs belonging to 10 lipid classes (sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, free fatty acid, cholesteryl ester, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, ceramide, and triacylglyceride) and one metabolite group (acyl-carnitine) present in sea turtle plasma. The relative ion intensities of most lipids (80%) were consistent between species, across seasons, and were not correlated to body size or estimated sex. Of the differences we observed, the most pronounced was the differences in relative ion intensity between species. We identified 123 lipids that had species-specific relative ion intensities. While some of this variability is likely due to green and hawksbill turtles consuming different food items, we found indications of a phylogenetic component as well. Of these, we identified 47 lipids that varied by season, most belonging to the structural phospholipid classes. Overall, more lipids (n = 39) had higher relative ion intensity in the upwelling (colder) season compared to the non-upwelling season (n = 8). Further, we found more variability in hawksbill turtles than green turtles. Here, we provide the framework in which to apply future lipid profiling in the assessment of health, physiology, and behavior in endangered sea turtles.