• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2020

In this study, some of the recently reported data processing strategies were evaluated and modified based on their capabilities and a brief workflow for data mining was redefined for Q-TOF LC-MS based untargeted metabolomics. Commercial pooled human plasma samples were used for this purpose. An ultrafiltration procedure was applied on sample preparation. Sample set was analyzed through Q-TOF LC/MS. A C18 column (Agilent Zorbax 1.8 µM, 50 × 2.1 mm) was used for chromatographic separation. Raw chromatograms were processed using XCMS - R programming language edition and Isotopologue Parameter Optimization (IPO) was used to optimize XCMS parameters. The raw XCMS table was processed using MS Excel to find reliable and reproducible peaks. Totally 1650 reliable and reproducible potential metabolite peaks were found based on the data processing procedures given in this paper. The redefined dataset was upload into MetaboAnalyst platform and the identified metabolites were matched with 86 metabolic pathways. Thus, two list were obtained and presented in this study as supplement files. The first list is to present the retention times and m/z values of detected metabolite peaks. The second list is the metabolic pathways related with the identified metabolites. The briefly described data processing strategies and dataset presented in this study could be beneficial for the researchers working on untargeted metabolomics for processing their data and validating their results.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.36-40
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• 2020

Untargeted metabolomics is a useful tool for drug development focusing on novel chemotherapeutic and chemopreventative agents against cancer cells. In recent years, quadrupole time of flight liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (Q-TOF LC/MS)-based untargeted metabolomic approaches have gained importance to evaluate the effect of these agents at the molecular level. The researchers working on cell culture studies still do not apply standardized methodologies on sample preparation for untargeted metabolomics approaches. In this study, the rough and wet lysis techniques performed on MCF-7 breast cancer cells were compared with each other via the Q-TOF LC/MS-based metabolomic approach. The C18 and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) columns were used for the separation of the metabolites in MCF-7 cell lysates. 505 peaks were detected through the HILIC column and 551 peaks were found through the C18 column for the wet lysis technique. This situation supported by the base peak chromatograms showed that the wet lysis technique allowed us to extract higher number of non-polar metabolites. Almost equal number of metabolites was found for the C18 and HILIC columns (697 peaks for the HILIC column and 695 peaks for the C18 column) when the rough lysis technique was used. However, the intensities of polar metabolites were higher for the rough lysis technique on base peak chromatograms for both the HILIC and C18 columns. Although cell lysis technique, which is the first step in the sample preparation for cell culture studies, does not cause dramatic differences in the number of the detected metabolite peaks, it affects the polar and non-polar metabolite ratio significantly. Therefore, it must be considered carefully especially for in vitro drug development studies.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 2017

Anabolic steroids have similar structures to testosterone, both of which promote the growth of muscle mass and increase strength. However, the side effects of anabolic steroid use may lead to heart attacks or strokes. Additionally, the excessive use of steroids inhibits the production of the sex hormones in the body via a negative feedback loop, which results in testicular atrophy in males and amenorrhea in females. Currently, the method of choice used to test for the presence of anabolic steroids is GC-MS. However, GC-MS methods require chemical derivatization of the steroid sample to ensure compatibility with the analytical method; therefore, analysis of many different samples is difficult and time consuming. Unlike GC-MS, the liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF-MS) method is suitable for many samples. Twenty-two different anabolic steroids were analyzed by LC-Q-TOF-MS with various collision energies (CE). Accurate mass spectral data were obtained using a Q-TOF-MS equipped with an electro-spray ionization source and operated in the positive MS/MS mode for several classes of steroids that are often the targets of testing. Based on the collected data, fragmentation pathways were carefully elucidated. The high selectivity and sensitivity of the LC-Q-TOF-MS instrument combined with these fragmentation pathways offers a new approach for the rapid and accurate screening of anabolic steroids. The obtained data from the 22 different anabolic steroids will be shared with the scientific community in order to establish a library to aid in the screening of illegal anabolic steroids.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2012

The herb of Artemisia capillaris in Chinese medicine is used to treat hepatic diseases. In this research, qualitative analysis was performed using a UPLC/Q-TOF-ESI-MS/MS method for rapid identification of phenolic substances from A. capillaris: three caffeoylquinic acids (chlorogenic acid, 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid), three flavonoids (hyperoside, isorhamnetin 3-O-robinobioside and quercetin) and three prenylated coumarins (6,8-diprenylumbelliferone, cedrelopsin and osthol) were identified. The three prenylated coumarins have not been reported from A. capillaris.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.114-118
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• 2017

While saliva can be considered as good biological fluid for monitoring biomarkers due to many advantages including its communication with blood and the non-invasive nature during its sampling, its applications to that purpose is still limited. As a part of efforts to expand the applications of saliva to the protein biomarker research, we carried out global absolute quantitation of proteins in human whole saliva (WS) by bottom-up proteomics techniques mainly based on nLC-Q-IMS-TOF employing $MS^E$. From the analyses of a pooled WS sample collected from 22 healthy Korean volunteers, 93 proteins ranging from $5.89{\times}10^1ng/mL$ (immunoglobulin heavy chain) to $1.59{\times}10^4ng/mL$ (${\alpha}-amylase$ 1) were confirmed. For the validation of the present results, human serum albumin in the same sample was quantitated by ELISA and its result was compared with that from the nLC-Q-IMS-TOF study. As a result, there was no significant difference between two results from individual approaches ($1.18{\times}10^4{\pm}0.03{\times}10^4 ng/mL$ from nLC-Q-IMS-TOF experiments vs. $1.23{\times}10^4{\pm}0.07{\times}10^4ng/mL$ from ELISA experiments, n=3, p=0.309). To our knowledge, this is the first global absolute quantitation of proteins in human whole saliva and information from the present study can be widely used as the first level reference for the discovery of new protein biomarkers from human whole saliva as well as for quantitative applications of human whole saliva proteins.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.377-386
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• 2010

Single-dimensional (1-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) LC methods were utilized to separate peptides from various sources followed by MS/MS analysis. Two-dimensional ultra-high performance liquid chromatography is a useful tool for proteome analysis, providing a greater peak capacity than 1-D LC. The most popular 2-D LC approach used today for proteomic research combines strong cation exchange and reversed-phase LC. We have evaluated an alternative mode for 2-D LC of peptides using 2-D RP-RP nano UPLC Q-TOF Mass Spectrometry, employing reversed-phase columns in both separation dimensions. As control experiments, we identified 129 proteins in 1-D LC and 322 proteins in 2-D LC from E. coli extract peptides. Furthermore, we applied this method to rat primary hepatocyte and a total of 170 proteins were identified from 1-D LC, and 527 proteins were identified from all 2-D LC system. The in-depth protein profiling established by this 2-D LC MS/MS from rat primary hepatocyte could be a very useful reference for future applications in regards to drug induced liver toxicity.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.26-33
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• 2018

Xanthium sibiricum is used as a traditional folk medicine for the treatment of cancer, fever, headache, nasal sinusitis, and skin pruritus. This study aimed to identify components from Xanthium sibiricum extracts using an SPE-800MHz NMR-MS hyphenated system. The simultaneous acquisition of MS and NMR spectra from the same chromatographic peaks significantly increases the depth of information acquired for the compound and allows the elucidation of structures that would not be possible using MS or NMR data alone. LC -NMR analysis was conducted using a HPLC separation system coupled to 800 MHz spectrometer equipped with a cryoprobe, and a SPE unit was used to automatically trap chromatographic peaks using a HPLC pump. LC-MS analysis was conducted with a Q-TOF MS instrument using ESI ionization in the negative ion mode. Using the hyphenated analysis, several secondary metabolites were identified, such as 3',5'-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 1',5'-O-dicaffeoyl- quinic acid, and ethyl caffeate. These results demonstrate that the SPE-800MHz NMR-MS hyphenated system can be used to identify metabolites within natural products that have complex mixtures.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.2663-2670
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• 2013

The purpose of stability testing is to provide evidence about how the quality of a drug varies with time under the influence of a variety of environmental factors. In this study, erythropoietin (EPO) was analyzed under different pH (pH 3 and pH 9) and temperature ($25^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$) conditions according to current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) and International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. The molecular weight difference between intact EPO and deglycosylated EPO was determined by SDS-PAGE, and aggregated forms of EPO under thermal stress and high-pH conditions were investigated by size exclusion chromatography. High pH and high temperature induced increases in dimer and high molecular weight aggregate forms of EPO. UPLC-ESI-TOF-MS was applied to analyze the changed modification sites on EPO. Further, normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography was performed to identify proposed glycan structures and high pH anion exchange chromatography was carried out to investigate any change in carbohydrate composition. The results demonstrated that there were no changes in modification sites or the glycan structure under severe conditions; however, the number of dimers and aggregates increased at $40^{\circ}C$ and pH 9, respectively.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2014

Liquid chromatography based mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is a key technology for analyzing highly complex and dynamic proteome samples. With highly accurate and sensitive LC-MS analysis of complex proteome samples, efficient data processing is another critical issue to obtain more information from LC-MS data. A typical proteomic data processing starts with protein database search engine which assigns peptide sequences to MS/MS spectra and finds proteins. Although several search engines, such as SEQUEST and MASCOT, have been widely used, there is no unique standard way to interpret MS/MS spectra of peptides. Each search engine has pros and cons depending on types of mass spectrometers and physicochemical properties of peptides. In this study, we describe a novel data process pipeline which identifies more peptides and proteins by correcting precursor ion mass numbers and unifying multi search engines results. The pipeline utilizes two open-source software, iPE-MMR for mass number correction, and iProphet to combine several search results. The integrated pipeline identified 25% more proteins in mouse epididymal adipose tissue compared with the conventional method. Also the pipeline was validated using control and colitis induced colon tissue. The results of the present study shows that the integrated pipeline can efficiently identify increased number of proteins compared to the conventional method which can be a breakthrough in identification of a potential biomarker candidate.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2023

Eutylone, dibutylone, and dimethylone are potential psychotropic designer drugs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the in vitro metabolic pathways of synthetic cathinones with methylenedioxy groups. The three methylenedioxy derivatives were incubated with human liver microsomes. The metabolites were characterized based on liquid chromatography and quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Eutylone, dibutylone, and dimethylone were metabolized to yield three, six, and four metabolites, respectively. Reduction and demethylenation were the major metabolic pathways for all three drugs tested. However, dibutylone and dimethylone showed an additional metabolite generated via N-oxidation. These results provide evidence for the in vivo metabolism of methylenedioxy synthetic cathinones, and could be applied to the analysis of synthetic cathinones and their relevant metabolites in biological samples.