An extendable all-in-one injection twin derivatization LC-MS/MS strategy for the absolute quantification of multiple chemical-group-based submetabolomes

The ability of LC-MS/MS for high coverage metabolite analysis lags behind the requirements of global metabolomics. The introduction of chemical derivatizations could significantly extend the ability of LC-MS/MS with enhanced MS response and improved LC separation, which has been serving as a promising quantitative tool for metabolomic analysis. However, as one specific derivatization reagent usually targets to a certain moiety, only a single chemical-group-based submetabolome could be analyzed in one injection. Therefore, the coverage of detected metabolites by derivatization-based LC-MS/MS is largely limited. To overcome this technical obstacle of derivatization-based LC-MS and increase submetabolome coverage, we proposed an extendable all-in-one injection LC-MS/MS strategy. 5-dimethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl chloride (Dns-Cl)/5-diethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl chloride (Dens-Cl) and 5-dimethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl piperazine (Dns-PP)/5-diethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl piperazine (Dens-PP) were used as twins labeling reagents for amino/phenol and carboxyl submetabolomes, respectively. “Series Mode” and “Parallel Mode” were proposed and investigated using eight representative standards with the consideration of interaction between different derivatization systems, time-consumption, and extendability. As a result, we found that “Series Mode” led to yield reduction, while “Parallel Mode” gave identical results with those of individual derivatization. Finally, a “Parallel Mode” was chosen to develop an extendable all-in-one injection twin derivatization LC-MS/MS strategy to quantify eighty metabolites assigned to five classes of microbial metabolites, including polyamines, amino acids, indole derivatives, bile acids, and free fatty acids. This well-validated method quantified 67 metabolites absolutely and discovered additional 40 differential metabolites compared with the untargeted method in rat serum from irinotecan (CPT-11)-induced gastrointestinal toxicity model. [Display omitted] •This strategy was developed for chemical derivatization-based LC-MS/MS.•“Parallel Mode” was better in derivatization efficiency, time-consumption and extensibility.•Multiple submetabolomes with different labeling were quantified in one injection.•40 additional differential metabolites were found compared with untargeted method.•All-in-one injection strategy should be useful for global metabolomics.