Simultaneous quantitation of multiple myeloma related dietary metabolites in serum using HILIC-LC-MS/MS

BACKGROUND: Recent studies from targeted and untargeted metabolomics have consistently revealed that diet-related metabolites, including carnitine (C0), several species of acylcarnitines (AcyCNs), amino acids, ceramides, and lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) may serve as potential multiple myeloma (MM) biomarkers. However, most of these approaches had some intrinsic limitations, namely low reproducibility and compromising the accuracy of the results. OBJECTIVE: This study developed and validated a precise, efficient, and reliable liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method for measuring these 28 metabolic risk factors in human serum. DESIGN: This method employed isopropanol to extract the metabolites from serum, gradient elution on a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic column (HILIC) for chromatographic separation, and multiple reaction monitor (MRM) mode with positive electrospray ionization (ESI) for mass spectrometric detection. RESULTS: The correlation coefficients of linear response for this method were more than 0.9984. Analytical recoveries ranged from 91.3 to 106.3%, averaging 99.5%. The intra-run and total coefficients of variation were 1.1–5.9% and 2.0–9.6%, respectively. We have simultaneously determined the serological levels of C0, several subclasses of AcyCNs, amino acids, ceramides, and LPCs within 15 min for the first time. CONCLUSION: The established LC-MS/MS method was accurate, sensitive, efficient, and could be valuable in providing insights into the association between diet patterns and MM disease and added value in further clinical research.