LC-MS based Metabolite Analysis

Targeted metabolite quantification is a highly selective approach to analyze the poolsizes of metabolites. Using the separation power of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled with a highly selective and sensitive triple quadrupole mass spectrometer makes not only abundant endproducts, but also very low abundant intermediates accessible in a quantitative manner. However, to be as sensitive as possible, prior optimization of fragmentation energies and mass transitions is required which narrows down the list of potential targets to compounds that are present as pure chemical standards. We have implemented a method focused on the sensitive quantification of amino acids and their precursors.