Ultrasensitive quantification of trace amines based on N-phosphorylation labeling chip 2D LC-QQQ/MS

Xiqing Bian; Yida Zhang; Na Li; Menglin Shi; Xiaolin Chen; Hui-Lu Zhang; Jie Liu; Jian-Lin Wu

doi:10.1016/j.jpha.2023.02.003

Ultrasensitive quantification of trace amines based on N-phosphorylation labeling chip 2D LC-QQQ/MS

J Pharm Anal. 2023 Mar;13(3):315-322. doi: 10.1016/j.jpha.2023.02.003. Epub 2023 Feb 13.

Authors

Xiqing Bian¹, Yida Zhang¹, Na Li¹, Menglin Shi², Xiaolin Chen¹, Hui-Lu Zhang², Jie Liu², Jian-Lin Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, 999078, China.
² Department of Digestive Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, China.

Abstract

Trace amines (TAs) are metabolically related to catecholamine and associated with cancer and neurological disorders. Comprehensive measurement of TAs is essential for understanding pathological processes and providing proper drug intervention. However, the trace amounts and chemical instability of TAs challenge quantification. Here, diisopropyl phosphite coupled with chip two-dimensional (2D) liquid chromatography tandem triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-QQQ/MS) was developed to simultaneously determine TAs and associated metabolites. The results showed that the sensitivities of TAs increased up to 5520 times compared with those using nonderivatized LC-QQQ/MS. This sensitive method was utilized to investigate their alterations in hepatoma cells after treatment with sorafenib. The significantly altered TAs and associated metabolites suggested that phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolic pathways were related to sorafenib treatment in Hep3B cells. This sensitive method has great potential to elucidate the mechanism and diagnose diseases considering that an increasing number of physiological functions of TAs have been discovered in recent decades.

Keywords: Chip 2D LC-QQQ/MS; Derivatization; Hepatoma; Trace amines.