Universal Derivatization of Metabolites for Improved Sensitivity in Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

摘要

Analysis of metabolites by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) suffers from variations in signal response depending on the level of ionization efficiency and competing ionization. This project will use a two stage derivatization scheme to derivatize amine, thiol, hydroxyl, aldehyde and carboxyl moieties with a tertiary amine tag. By reacting the common functional groups in metabolites with a tertiary amine tag, the analyte's hydrophobicity and proton affinity is improved and therefore signal intensity and competing ionization is diminished.