Rapid Screening of 60 Types of Natural Toxins in Whole Blood by UPLC-Q/Orbitrap HRMS

Objectives: To establish a rapid screening method for 60 types of natural toxins in whole blood by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/electrostatic field orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/Orbitrap HRMS).

Methods: The chromatographic and mass spectrometric information of 60 standard samples of natural toxins were analyzed and recorded, and a screening database was built. Whole blood was pretreated by protein precipitation method combined with ultrasonic-assisted dispersion, and then a Hypersil GOLD C column was used with 5 mmol/L ammonium formate aqueous solution (containing 0.1% formic acid) and acetonitrile as mobile phase for gradient elution. In the positive ion mode, the data were collected in full scan/data-dependent secondary scan (Full MS/dd-MS) mode. Based on the established screening library, the rapid screening of 60 types of natural toxins in whole blood was realized by TraceFinder software.

Results: A UPLC-Q/Orbitrap HRMS method was developed for the screening of 60 types of natural toxins in whole blood. Except for the limit of detection (LOD) of oxymatrine (20 ng/mL) and strophanthidin (40 ng/mL), the LOD for the other 58 natural toxins was in the range of 0.05-5 ng/mL.

Conclusions: This method has a simple and efficient pretreatment process and can achieve rapid screening of 60 types of natural toxins in whole blood.