title: Direct and quantitative analysis of underivatized acylcarnitines in serum and whole blood using paper spray mass spectrometry.
abstract: A simple protocol for rapid quantitation of acylcarnitines in serum and whole blood has been developed using paper spray mass spectrometry. Dried serum and whole blood containing a mixture of ten acylcarnitines at various concentrations were analyzed as spots from paper directly without any sample pretreatment, separation, or derivatization. The composition of the spray solvent was found to be a critical factor: for serum samples, spray solvent of methanol/water/formic acid (80:20:0.1) gave the best signal intensity while for blood samples which contain more matrix components, acetonitrile/water (90:10) was a much more suitable spray solvent. For the paper type and size used, 0.5 μL of sample provided an optimal signal for both serum and whole blood samples. For quantitative profiling, the limits of quantitation obtained from both serum and blood were much lower than the clinically validated cutoff values for diagnosis of fatty acid oxidation disorders in newborn screening. Linearity (R(2) > 0.95) and reproducibility (RSD ~10 %) were achieved in the concentration ranges from 100 nM to 5 μM for the C2 acylcarnitine, and for other acylcarnitines, these values were from 10 to 500 nM. Acylcarnitine profiles offer an effective demonstration of the fact that paper spray mass spectrometry is an appropriate, simple, rapid method with high sensitivity and high reproducibility applicable to newborn screening tests.
authors: Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors: Qian
authors: Q
authors: Yang
authors: Nicholas E
authors: NE
authors: Manicke
authors: He
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Christopher
authors: C
authors: Petucci
authors: R Graham
authors: RG
authors: Cooks
authors: Zheng
authors: Z
authors: Ouyang
mesh_terms: D002331:Carnitine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood; D059788:Dried Blood Spot Testing / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008052:Lipid Metabolism, Inborn Errors / Q000097:blood; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: C116917:acylcarnitine; D002331:Carnitine