基于肝脏代谢组分析研究低聚硒化氨基多糖对黑鲷的免疫调节作用

采用基于液相色谱-飞行时间质谱联用（LC-TOF-MS）技术的代谢组学方法，分析黑鲷肝脏内源性代谢物的变化，研究硒化氨基多糖增强黑鲷的免疫调节机制。采用XCMS^plus软件非靶向分析质谱采集数据，筛选潜在生物标志物，并通过MetaboAnalyst3.0网站分析相关代谢通路。结果表明，饲喂硒化氨基多糖组中的代谢物明显区分于空白组，发现并鉴定了32个有差异的生物标志物。代谢通路分析结果表明，硒化氨基多糖可通过氨基酰基-转运脱氧核糖核苷酸（tRNA）生物合成、氨基酸代谢、核苷酸代谢、氮代谢等代谢通路增强黑鲷自身的免疫机能。该研究为阐明硒化氨基多糖的免疫增强机制提供了科学依据。     

基于GC-MS的灰葡萄孢菌代谢组分析

对农作物重要病害灰霉病的致病菌——灰葡萄孢菌进行了代谢组提取溶剂、衍生化时间和温度等前处理条件以及内标物筛选优化。结果表明,以水杨苷作为内标物,试验条件下以甲醇-水(80∶20)为提取溶剂,按照4.0 m L/0.1 g菌丝的剂量进行提取,采用N,O-双(三甲基硅烷基)乙酰胺和甲氧基胺盐酸盐在37℃和6 h条件下进行衍生化,可实现多种代谢物衍生产物收率和稳定性的最优化。灰葡萄孢菌丝代谢组的检测获得了210个峰,其中50种代谢物与NIST 2008的匹配度达到80%以上,主要为氨基酸类、醇类、有机酸类、糖类等代谢物,并通过标准品对部分代谢物进行了定性。典型的17种代谢物在1.0~100μg/m L范围内线性关系良好,相关系数均大于0.98,检出限为0.02~10.0 ng/m L,定量下限为0.1~34.0 ng/m L。方法精密度分析结果显示89.05%代谢物的相对标准偏差为0.01%~16.8%。所建立的方法适合于丝状真菌的代谢组检测,可为农业和医学领域开展微生物代谢组研究提供参考。     

反相高效液相色谱法直接测定水蛭中14种未衍生氨基酸的含量

建立了一种反相高效液相色谱/蒸发光散射检测器方法,同时测定中药水蛭中14种未衍生氨基酸含量。以异亮氨酸等氨基酸为标准品、PrevailTMC18(250mm×4.6mmi.d.,5μm)为色谱柱、梯度洗脱、漂移管温度115℃、气体流量2.5L/min,在25min内即可将水蛭中14种氨基酸分离测定。氨基酸质量浓度0.072~2.29g/L时,其对数值与峰面积对数值线性关系良好;14种氨基酸的加样回收率为94.8%~104.4%;信噪比为3时,异亮氨酸检出限为20mg/L。该法快速、简便、准确,可作为水蛭中氨基酸直接测定方法,亦可为其它中药中氨基酸分析提供参考。     

基于脾脏代谢组学方法研究低聚硒化氨基多糖对黑鲷的免疫调节作用

以冷冻甲醇提取,C_(18)色谱柱和HILIC色谱柱分别分离黑鲷脾脏中的内源性代谢物,采用基于超高效液相色谱-飞行时间质谱联用技术(UPLC-TOF-MS)的非靶向代谢组学研究方法,分析了黑鲷饲喂低聚硒化氨基多糖后脾脏中内源性代谢物的变化差异,揭示了低聚硒化氨基多糖调节黑鲷免疫功能的潜在机制。采用XCMS~(plus)软件结合高分辨二级质谱数据库处理质谱原始数据,筛选出潜在生物标志物,并通过Metabo Analyst 4.0网站分析相关代谢通路。结果表明,黑鲷饲喂低聚硒化氨基多糖后脾脏中的36个代谢物发生显著变化;低聚硒化氨基多糖可通过9条代谢通路增强黑鲷的免疫机能。该研究结果为阐明低聚硒化氨基多糖的免疫增强机制提供了科学依据。     

新型衍生试剂柱前衍生氨基酸的高效液相色谱分析

以邻硝基苯磺酰氯为标记试剂,RP-HPLC为分析模式,建立了一种新的氨基酸衍生化方法.通过液质联用对产物进行定性,研究并确定了最佳衍生化条件:衍生温度25 ℃,缓冲液pH9.0,衍生时间10 min.实验建立了20种氨基酸的HPLC分离方法:选用Kromasil C18柱,流动相A为30 mmol/L的NH4Ac溶液(pH 7.5),B相为乙腈;采用梯度洗脱,检测波长275 nm,室温.20种氨基酸在0.025 ～6.4 mmol/L范围内线性关系良好,相关系数在0.998 0 ～0.999 8之间,检出限为0.01 ～0.113 nmol.     

基于GC-TOF/MS技术的转Bt基因大米代谢组学研究

基于GC-TOF/MS技术对来源于两个不同产地的转Bt基因及其亲本大米进行了代谢组学研究。从大米样本中共检出774个色谱峰,鉴定出278种代谢产物,包括糖、氨基酸、脂肪酸及有机酸等代谢产物。对转Bt基因及其亲本大米进行主成分分析,结果表明,转Bt基因与亲本大米的代谢组之间无明显差异性,进一步对数据进行偏最小二乘判别分析和方差分析,仅甘油和鼠李糖两种代谢产物浓度在转Bt基因大米及其亲本大米间存在一定差异(分别升高1.55和3.32倍);考察了不同产地对大米代谢组的影响,结果表明武汉和海南两个产地的大米代谢组之间存在明显差异,有15种代谢产物在不同产地的亲本大米之间以及不同产地的转基因大米之间均发生显著变化。应用GC-TOF/MS技术对来源于不同产地的转Bt基因大米及其亲本大米的代谢组进行比较研究,结果表明引入外源Bt基因对实验中的水稻机体内代谢未产生明显影响,产地差异造成的大米间代谢组差异比引入外源Bt基因造成的大米间代谢组差异更为显著。     

代谢组学GC-MS分析方法中样品衍生化技术的新进展

代谢组学是通过考察生物体系受刺激或扰动前后(如某个特定的基因变异或环境变化后)代谢产物的动态变化,研究生物体系代谢网络的一种技术,其研究对象主要是内源性小分子物质.这些物质大部分极性强,难挥发,在气相色谱-质谱分析前,需要进行适当的化学衍生处理.近几年来化学衍生技术发展迅速,本文主要从衍生试剂种类、衍生条件和衍生效果(包括衍生效率、重复性和产物稳定性等)出发,综述了已报道的衍生方法的特点,并展望了衍生技术的发展前景.     

C18柱串联冠醚手性柱高效分离3种芳香族氨基酸对映体

将C18柱与手性冠醚柱串联,建立了一种反相高效液相色谱法用于3种芳香族氨基酸对映体同时拆分的方法.考察了反相色谱流动相的组成、pH值、柱温、流速对对映体拆分的影响.实验结果表明,当流动相为HClO4-乙睛溶液(86:14,V/V,pH 2.0)、柱温20℃、流速0.4 mL/min时,3种氨基酸对映体可获得基线分离.进一步对比了C18柱、冠醚手性柱和串联顺序不同的4种分离模式,结果表明,C18柱不能拆分氨基酸对映体,仅能分离不同种类氨基酸;冠醚手性柱可分离氨基酸映体,但不同种类氨基酸色谱峰出现重叠;串联模式能实现3种氨基酸对映体的基线分离,实现双柱优势互补,而串联顺序对分离影响不大,仅影响色谱峰的峰形.     

亲水作用色谱/质谱联用方法用于膀胱癌患者血清代谢组学研究

膀胱癌是泌尿系统最常见的恶性肿瘤之一,具有高发病率、高复发率和高进展率的特点.本研究应用69个极性代谢物标样选择合适的分离系统,建立了两性离子亲水作用色谱/质谱联用的代谢组学分析方法.本方法线性范围较宽,检出限低于ng/mL数量级.将本方法用于血清代谢组学分析,85%以上代谢物峰面积的RSD<30%.对64例膀胱癌患者和32例正常人的血清进行代谢组学研究,发现溶血磷脂酰胆碱、游离脂肪酸、氨基酸、胆汁酸、有机酸、核苷等在患病组和正常组中存在显著差异.经筛选和验证,甘磷酸胆碱、胱氨酸、十二碳烯酸、二十碳烯酸和鹅去氧胆酸5种代谢物可以作为区分膀胱癌和正常人的潜在标志物.本研究结果表明,基于亲水作用色谱/质谱联用的代谢组学方法是发现癌症诊断潜在生物标志物的有效手段.     

气相色谱-质谱分析血清代谢组前处理中的除蛋白及衍生方法

采用气相色谱-质谱联用技术(GC-MS),对代谢组学研究中血清样本的前处理方法进行考察,研究蛋白去除和衍生化两个步骤对血清代谢物分析的影响。对血清样本和质控(Quality control,QC)样本的图谱进行峰相对标准偏差(RSD)计算,全谱主成分分析(Principal components analysis,PCA)和信息量的计算以及代谢物的定性定量分析。结果表明,QC样本和血清平行样的峰面积RSD均小于10%,PCA分析结果及信息量计算结果都表明这些前处理方法重复性及可靠性良好,适用于代谢组学研究。4种前处理方法所得代谢图谱的PCA分析结果表明不同除蛋白试剂和衍生化试剂对代谢物谱存在不同的影响,其中衍生化试剂的影响大于除蛋白试剂的影响。信息量计算显示MSTFA组图谱的信息量(约8.9)大于BSTFA组的信息量(约8.7)。对血清样本定性共得到44种代谢物,MSTFA组血清样本特有代谢物5种,BSTFA血清样本特有代谢物6种。对定性结果进行分析后建议:当需要研究极性氨基酸和短链脂肪酸时,采用BSTFA作衍生化试剂较合适;而当需要研究非极性氨基酸和长链脂肪酸时,采用MSTFA作衍生化试剂较合适。     

Extraction,derivatization, and determination of metabolome in human macrophages

A GC/TOF‐MS was applied to the determination of metabolites in human macrophages. The extraction conditions and quenching conditions were investigated and optimized. The results indicated that 0.9% w/v sodium chloride at 4°C was the most favorable condition to quench macrophage, 1 mL 50% ACN for 2 min in ice bath was the optimal condition to extract 5 × 10⁶ cells. Two hundred six peaks could be detectable with peak area over 50 using this method. Among these peaks, 45 peaks with the similarity over 700 were identified using standard compounds for endogenous metabolites. Thirty‐seven out of 45 metabolites could be quantified directly by this method. Twenty metabolites were selected randomly, and 15 amino acids were used for method validation. The correlation coefficients (r) ranging from 0.9902 to 0.9977 were obtained for 15 amino acids in the range of 2.35–150.20 μg/mL. The intraday and interday precisions were lower than 19.90% for the randomly selected 20 endogenous metabolites. Using this development method and multivariate statistical technique, several potential biomarkers were found from human macrophages infected by different Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) strains. The results suggest that the method could be applied to the investigation of the pathogenicity of tuberculosis.     

Development and validation of a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method for the metabolic profiling of human colon tissue

In this study, a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method was developed and validated for the metabolic profiling of human colon tissue. Each colon tissue sample (20 mg) was ultra‐sonicated with 1 mL of a mixture of chloroform/methanol/water in the ratio of 20:50:20 (v/v/v), followed by centrifugation, collection of supernatant, drying, removal of moisture using anhydrous toluene and finally derivatization using N‐methyl‐N‐trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) with 1% trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS). A volume of 1 µL of the derivatized mixture was injected into the GC/MS system. A total of 53 endogenous metabolites were separated and identified in the GC/MS chromatogram, all of which were selected to evaluate the sample stability and precision of the method. Of the identified endogenous metabolites 19 belonging to diverse chemical classes and covering a wide range of the GC retention times (Rt) were selected to investigate the quantitative linearity of the method. The developed GC/MS method demonstrated good reproducibility with intra‐ and inter‐day precision within relative standard deviation (RSD) of ±15%. The metabolic profiles of the intact tissue were determined to be stable (100 ± 15%) for up to 90 days at ?80°C. Satisfactory results were also obtained in the case of other stability‐indicating studies such as freeze/thaw cycle stability, bench‐top stability and autosampler stability. The developed method showed a good linear response for each of the 19 analytes tested (r² > 0.99). Our GC/MS metabolic profiling method was successfully applied to discriminate biopsied colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue from their matched normal tissue obtained from six CRC patients using orthogonal partial least‐squares discriminant analysis [two latent variables, R²Y = 0.977 and Q² (cumulative) = 0.877]. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry peak sorting algorithm

We report a novel peak sorting method for the two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC x GC/TOF-MS) system. The objective of peak sorting is to recognize peaks from the same metabolite occurring in different samples from thousands of peaks detected in the analytical procedure. The developed algorithm is based on the fact that the chromatographic peaks for a given analyte have similar retention times in all of the chromatograms. Raw instrument data are first processed by ChromaTOF (Leco) software to provide the peak tables. Our algorithm achieves peak sorting by utilizing the first- and second-dimension retention times in the peak tables and the mass spectra generated during the process of electron impact ionization. The algorithm searches the peak tables for the peaks generated by the same type of metabolite using several search criteria. Our software also includes options to eliminate non-target peaks from the sorting results, e.g., peaks of contaminants. The developed software package has been tested using a mixture of standard metabolites and another mixture of standard metabolites spiked into human serum. Manual validation demonstrates high accuracy of peak sorting with this algorithm.     

Metabolomic profiling of human urine in hepatocellular carcinoma patients using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

With the technique of metabolomics, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), urine or serum metabolites can be assayed to explore disease biomarkers. In this work, we present a metabolomic method to investigate the urinary metabolic difference between hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, n = 20) male patients and normal male subjects (n = 20). The urinary endogenous metabolome was assayed using chemical derivatization followed by GC/MS. After GC/MS analysis, 103 metabolites were detected, of which 66 were annotated as known compounds. By a two sample t-test statistics with p < 0.05, 18 metabolites were shown to be significantly different between the HCC and control groups. A diagnostic model was constructed with a combination of 18 marker metabolites or together with alphafetoprotein, using principal component analysis and receiver-operator characteristic curves. The multivariate statistics of the diagnostic model yielded a separation between the two groups with an area under the curve value of 0.9275. This non-invasive technique of identifying HCC biomarkers from urine may have clinical utility.     

An ultrasonication-assisted extraction and derivatization protocol for GC/TOFMS-based metabolite profiling

Conventional chemical derivatization of metabolites in biological specimens is time-consuming, which limits the throughput and efficiency of metabolite profiling using a gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOFMS) platform. We report an ultrasonication-assisted protocol which reduces the derivatization time from hours to about 30 min and significantly enhances the derivatization efficiency prior to a GC/TOFMS analysis. The protocol was evaluated using 40 compounds representing different classes of human metabolites, and demonstrated good analytical precision and accuracy. In comparison with the conventional method, the new protocol was able to increase the intensity of most of the identified peaks (71.0%) in the GC/TOFMS chromatograms of human serum samples. The detected compounds with increased intensity include most amino acids, keto-containing organic acids, carbonyl-containing carbohydrates, and unsaturated fatty acids. We applied this protocol in a metabolomic study of human serum samples obtained from 34 patients diagnosed with hypertension and 29 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects. Metabolite markers associated with hypertension, including glucosamine, D-sorbitol, 1-stearoylglycerol, and homocysteine, were identified and validated by statistical methods and use of reference standards. Our work highlights the potential of this novel approach for the large-scale metabolite profiling of samples generated from plant, animal, and clinical and epidemiological studies.     

Analysis of odorous trichlorobromophenols in water by in-sample derivatization/solid-phase microextraction GC/MS

The simultaneous determination of several odorous trichlorobromophenols in water has been carried out by an in-sample derivatization headspace solid-phase microextraction method (HS-SPME).The analytical procedure involved their derivatization to methyl ethers with dimethyl sulfate/NaOH and further HS-SPME and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) determination. Parameters affecting both the derivatization efficiency and headspace SPME procedures, such as the selection of the SPME fiber coating, derivatization–extraction time and temperature, were studied. The commercially available polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) 100 μm and Carboxen-polydimethylsiloxane-divinylbenzene (CAR-PDMS-DVB) fibers appeared to be the most suitable for the simultaneous determination of these compounds. The precision of the HS-SPME/GC/MS method gave good relative standard deviations (RSDs) run-to-run between 9% and 19% for most of them, except for 2,5-diCl-6-Br-phenol, 2,6-diCl-3-Br-phenol and-2,3,6-triBr-phenol (22%, 25% and 23%, respectively). The method was linear over two orders of magnitude, and detection limits were compound dependent but ranged from 0.22 ng/l to 0.95 ng/l. The results obtained for water samples using the proposed SPME procedure were compared with those found with the EPA 625 method, and good agreement was achieved. Therefore, the in-sample derivatization HS-SPME/GC/MS procedure here proposed is a suitable method for the simultaneous determination of odorous trichlorobromophenols in water.     

Probing genetic algorithms for feature selection in comprehensive metabolic profiling approach

Six different clones of 1-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings grown under standardized conditions in a green house were used for sample preparation and further analysis. Three independent and complementary analytical techniques for metabolic profiling were applied in the present study: hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC-LC/ESI-MS), reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC/ESI-MS), and gas chromatography all coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/TOF-MS). Unsupervised methods, such as principle component analysis (PCA) and clustering, and supervised methods, such as classification, were used for data mining. Genetic algorithms (GA), a multivariate approach, was probed for selection of the smallest subsets of potentially discriminative classifiers. From more than 2000 peaks found in total, small subsets were selected by GA as highly potential classifiers allowing discrimination among six investigated genotypes. Annotated GC/TOF-MS data allowed the generation of a small subset of identified metabolites. LC/ESI-MS data and small subsets require further annotation. The present study demonstrated that combination of comprehensive metabolic profiling and advanced data mining techniques provides a powerful metabolomic approach for biomarker discovery among small molecules. Utilizing GA for feature selection allowed the generation of small subsets of potent classifiers.     

In situ derivatization/solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography/negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry for the determination of trichloroethylene metabolites in rat blood

An in situ derivatization solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method has been developed for the determination of the trichloroethylene (TCE) metabolites, trichloroacetic acid (TCA), dichloroacetic acid (DCA) and trichloroethanol (TCOH), in rat blood. The analytical procedure involves derivatization of TCA and DCA to their ethyl esters with acidic ethanol, headspace sampling using SPME, and gas chromatography/negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry (GC/NCI-MS) determination. Parameters affecting both derivatization efficiency and the headspace SPME procedure, such as the concentration of sulfuric acid, amount of ethanol, derivatization-extraction temperature and time, sample preheating time, agitator speed and desorption conditions, were optimized. The method showed good linearity over the range of 1-1000 ng/mL in rat blood for each metabolite with correlation coefficients (R(2)) higher than 0.99. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy were less than 10%. The relative recoveries for all analytes were greater than 84%. Validation results demonstrated that selected ion monitoring of the (35)Cl and (37)Cl isotopes using NCI resulted in reliable and sensitive quantitation of all three TCE metabolites. This validated method was successfully applied to study the toxicokinetic behavior of TCE metabolites following a 1 mg/kg oral dose of TCE.     

Determination and excretion study of gestrinone in human urine by high performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Gestrinone was studied by HPLC for screening and by GC/MS for confirmation. Three unknown peaks were found by HPLC which are probably the metabolites of gestrinone, and conjugated gestrinone in dosed human urine. The metabolites and gestrinone were excreted as the conjugated forms. The total amounts of metabolite 1 and conjugated gestrinone, recovered after 48 h, were 0.20 and 0.32 mg, respectively. When metabolite 1 was tested by LC/MS and LC/MS/MS, the parent ion was m/z 327, [MH](+), and fragment ions were seen at m/z 309 [MH - H(2)O](+), 291 [MH - 2H(2)O](+), 283, 263 and 239. The TMS-enol-TMS ether derivative of gestrinone has three peaks in the GC/MS chromatogram formed by tautomerism. The reproducibility of the derivatization method was stable and recoveries were over 87% when spiked into blank urine.     

Development and validation of a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry metabonomic platform for the global profiling of urinary metabolites

This paper presents a simple and reliable gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method for the metabonomic analysis of human urine samples. The sample preparation involved the depletion of excess urea via treatment with urease and subsequent protein precipitation using ice-cold ethanol. An aliquot of the mixture was separated, dried, trimethylsilyl (TMS)-derivatized and 1.0 microL of the derivatized extract was injected into the GC/MS system via split injection (1:10). Approximately 150 putative metabolites belonging to different chemical classes were identified from the pooled human urine samples. All the identified metabolites were selected to evaluate precision and stability of the GC/MS assay. More than 95% of the metabolites demonstrated good reproducibility, with intra-day and inter-day precision values below 15%. Metabolic profiling of 53 healthy male and female urine samples in combination with pattern recognition techniques was performed to further validate the GC/MS metabolite profiling assay. Principal component analysis (PCA) followed by orthogonal partial least squares analysis (OPLS) revealed differences between urinary metabolite profiles of healthy male and female subjects. This validated GC/MS metabolic profiling method may be further applied to the metabonomic screening of urinary biomarkers in clinical studies. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.