Direct Analysis of Biofluids by Mass Spectrometry with Microfluidic Voltage-Assisted Liquid Desorption Electrospray Ionization

Anal Chem. 2017 Nov 21;89(22):12014-12022. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b02398. Epub 2017 Nov 3.

Abstract

Signal suppression by sample matrix in direct electrospray ionization-mass spectrometric (ESI-MS) analysis hampers its clinical and biomedical applications. We report herein the development of a microfluidic voltage-assisted liquid desorption electrospray ionization (VAL-DESI) source to overcome this limitation. Liquid DESI is achieved for the first time in a microfluidic format. Direct analysis of urine, serum, and cell lysate samples by using the proposed microfluidic VAL-DESI-MS/MS method to detect chemical compounds of biomedical interest, including nucleosides, monoamines, amino acids, and peptides is demonstrated. Analyzing a set of urine samples spiked with dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) showed that the assay had a linear calibration curve with r2 value of 0.997 and a limit of detection of 0.055 μM DOPA. The method was applied to simultaneous quantification of nucleosides, that is, cytidine, adenosine, uridine, thymidine, and guanosine in cell lysates using 8-bromoadenosine as internal standard. Adenosine was found most abundant at 26.5 ± 0.57 nmol/106 cells, while thymidine was least at 3.1 ± 0.31 nmol/106 cells. Interestingly, the ratio of adenosine to deoxyadenosine varied significantly from human red blood cells (1.07 ± 0.06) to cancerous cells, including lymphoblast TK6 (0.52 ± 0.02), skin melanoma C32 (0.82 ± 0.04), and promyelocytic leukemia NB4 cells (0.38 ± 0.06). These results suggest that the VAL-DESI-MS/MS technique has a good potential in direct analysis of biofluids. Further, because of the simplicity in its design and operation, the proposed microfluidic liquid DESI source can be fabricated as a disposable device for point-of-care measurements.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Caffeine / blood*
  • Caffeine / chemistry
  • Caffeine / urine*
  • Erythrocytes / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization*
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Caffeine