Mass Spectral Library Quality Assurance by Inter-Library Comparison

Overview

Journal J Am Soc Mass Spectrom

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2017 Jan 28

PMID 28127680

Citations 23

Authors

William E Wallace

Weihua Ji

Dmitrii V Tchekhovskoi

Karen W Phinney

Stephen E Stein

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A method to discover and correct errors in mass spectral libraries is described. Comparing across a set of highly curated reference libraries compounds that have the same chemical structure quickly identifies entries that are outliers. In cases where three or more entries for the same compound are compared, the outlier as determined by visual inspection was almost always found to contain the error. These errors were either in the spectrum itself or in the chemical descriptors that accompanied it. The method is demonstrated on finding errors in compounds of forensic interest in the NIST/EPA/NIH Mass Spectral Library. The target list of compounds checked was the Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs (SWGDRUG) mass spectral library. Some examples of errors found are described. A checklist of errors that curators should look for when performing inter-library comparisons is provided. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

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