RESUMEN

The present work focused on the high-throughput screening and quantitation of guanidino compounds (GCs) and ureido compounds (UCs) in human thyroid tissues. The strategy employed benzylic rearrangement stable isotope labeling (BRSIL) for the sample preparation and then detection using liquid chromatography-drift tube ion mobility spectrometry-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC-DTIMS-QTOF MS). A short reversed-phase LC realized an on-line desalting and a measurement cycle of 5.0 min. DTIMS separation enhanced the better specificity and selectivity for the benzil labeled GCs and UCs. The elevated mass resolution of QTOF MS enabled measure of the characteristic ions at accurate mass in MS and tandem MS spectra. Collision cross section (CCS) from DTIMS and accurate mass from QTOF MS were used as two qualifiers for the profiling and identification of GCs and UCs. In addition, an integral abundance arising from 3-D ion features (retention time, drift time, m/z) was applied to quantify the GCs and UCs in human thyroid tissues. The quantitative validation indicated good linearity (coefficient values ≥ 0.9981), good precision (1.0%-12.3% for intra-day and 0.9%-7.8% for inter-day) and good accuracy (91%-109%). The results demonstrated that the developed BRSIL coupled with LC-DTIMS-QTOF MS can be a powerful analysis platform to investigate GCs and UCs in human thyroid tissues.

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RESUMEN

Recent innovations in ambient ionization technology for the direct analysis of various samples in their native environment facilitate the development and applications of mass spectrometry in natural science. Presented here is a novel, convenient and flame-based ambient ionization method for mass spectrometric analysis of organic compounds, termed as the ambient flame ionization (AFI) ion source. The key features of AFI ion source were no requirement of (high) voltages, laser beams and spray gases, but just using small size of n-butane flame (height approximately 1 cm, about 500 (o)C) to accomplish the rapid desorption and ionization for direct analysis of gaseous-, liquid- and solid-phase organic compounds, as well as real-world samples. This method has high sensitivity with a limit of detection of 1 picogram for propyphenazone, which allows consuming trace amount of samples. Compared to previous ionization methods, this ion source device is extremely simple, maintain-free, low-cost, user-friendly so that even an ordinary lighter (with n-butane as fuel) can achieve efficient ionization. A new orientation to mass spectrometry ion source exploitation might emerge from such a convenient, easy and inexpensive AFI ion source.