Acrolein (Acr), a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, can react directly with genomic DNA to form mutagenic adducts without undergoing metabolic activation. To sensitively and accurately quantify Acr–DNA adducts (including structural isomers and stereoisomers) in human leukocytes, we developed an enhanced stable isotope dilution ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)–tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method using ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3), which is thermally unstable and degrades readily to carbon dioxide and ammonia in heated gas phase. Interestingly, ammonium bicarbonate (as an additive to the mobile phase) not only improves the protonation of AcrdG adducts but also suppresses the formation of MS signal-deteriorating metal–AcrdG complexes during electrospray ionization, leading to the enhancement of their MS detection by 2.3–8.7 times. In contrast, routinely used ammonium salts (ammonium acetate and ammonium formate) and formic acid do not show similar enhancement. The developed method is potentially useful for enhancing ESI-MS detection of other modified 2′-deoxyribonucleosides that have difficulty in protonation and may form excess metal complexes during electrospray ionization. The limits of detection (LODs, S/N = 3) are estimated to be about 40–80 amol. By the use of the developed method, we found that the Acr adducts of three nucleotides (dG, dA, and dC) can be detected in human leukocytes. In addition to the known γ-AcrdG, α-AcrdA is also identified as an Acr-adduct of high abundance (2.5–20 adducts per108 nts).
丙烯醛(Acrolein,Acr)是一种无处不在的环境污染物,可直接与
基因组 DNA 发生反应,形成致突变加合物,而无需经过代谢活化。
碳酸氢铵(NH4HCO3)热不稳定,在加热气相中很容易降解为
二氧化碳和
氨,为了灵敏、准确地定量检测人体白细胞中的 Acr-DNA 加合物(包括结构异构体和立体异构体),我们开发了一种增强型稳定同位素稀释超高效
液相色谱(UHPLC)-串联质谱(MS/MS)方法。有趣的是,
碳酸氢铵(作为流动相的添加剂)不仅能改善 AcrdG 加合物的质子化,还能抑制电喷雾离子化过程中形成会降低 MS 信号的
金属-AcrdG 复合物,从而使其 MS 检测能力提高 2.3-8.7 倍。相比之下,常规使用的
铵盐(
醋酸铵和
甲酸铵)和
甲酸则没有类似的增强效果。所开发的方法可用于提高其他修饰的 2′-脱氧核苷酸的 ESI-MS 检测能力,因为这些核苷酸难以质子化,在电喷雾离子化过程中可能会形成过量的
金属复合物。检测限(LODs,S/N = 3)估计约为 40-80 amol。通过使用所开发的方法,我们发现可以在人类白细胞中检测到三种核苷酸(dG、dA 和 dC)的 Acr 加合物。除了已知的γ-AcrdG外,α-AcrdA也被鉴定为高丰度的Acr加合物(每108 nts有2.5-20个加合物)。