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An automated magnetic bead extraction method for measuring plasma metanephrines and 3-methoxytyramine using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract

Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is used routinely in clinical diagnostics; however, automating the sample pretreatment is challenging. We established and evaluated an automated method based on the magnetic bead extraction principle (MBE) to measure normetanephrine (NMN), metanephrine (MN), and 3-methoxytyramine (3-MT). The target analytes were extracted, purified, and concentrated using different solvents and chemical bond–modified magnetic beads transferred via a magnetic bar. The linearity, recovery, matrix effect, and precision of MBE were evaluated thoroughly, and compared with traditional solid-phase extraction (SPE) using 131 plasma samples. The chromatography peaks of metanephrines and 3-MT, extracted via MBE, are symmetrical, without interfering peaks. The linearity was excellent with correlation coefficient (r) > 0.99. The MBE exhibited good reproducibility with within-run coefficient variations (CVs) of 1.96–2.00%, 4.06–5.75%, and 3.89–4.90% for MN, NMN, and 3-MT, respectively. The total CVs for MN, NMN, and 3-MT were 1.96–2.80%, 5.12–5.75%, and 5.44–6.27%, respectively. The relative recoveries for MN, NMN, and 3-MT varied between 93.5 and 107.4%, whereas their biases were all within 10%. The results for MN, NMN, and 3-MT extracted via MBE compared with SPE exhibited excellent correlation, with r > 0.99; the mean bias% for MN, NMN, and 3-MT were small (−2.9%, −3.2%, and −3.2%, respectively). In conclusion, the automated MBE method for measuring plasma metanephrines and 3-MT can be applied in future routine clinical diagnostics, and the MBE principle may indicate a new era for LC-MS/MS in clinical application.

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Funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFC2401100); Innovation-Led Industrial Cluster Project of Zheng-Luo-Xin National Innovation Demonstration Area (201200211100); and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No.7212087).

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Author notes

  1. Songlin Yu and Weiyan Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Dongcheng District, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, No. 1 Shuaifu Yuan, Beijing, 100730, People’s Republic of China

    Songlin Yu, Jialei Yu, Ming Li, Xiaoli Ma, Yutong Zou, Danchen Wang, Qian Cheng, Shaowei Xie, Wei Luo, Xiuzhi Guo & Ling Qiu

  2. National Center for Clinical Laboratories, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Laboratory Medicine, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Weiyan Zhou

  3. Beijing BGI-GBI Biotech Co., Ltd, Beijing, China

    Shenyan Zhang, Xu Jiang & Huanhong Wang

  4. BGI Genomics, Shenzhen, China

    Shenyan Zhang

  5. State Key Laboratory of Complex Severe and Rare Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, China

    Ling Qiu

Authors
  1. Songlin Yu
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  2. Weiyan Zhou
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  15. Ling Qiu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, and data collection and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Songlin Yu and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ling Qiu.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (JS-2956)

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Source of biological material

Plasma for the method validation and comparison was obtained from that remaining from patient samples in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

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Yu, S., Zhou, W., Yu, J. et al. An automated magnetic bead extraction method for measuring plasma metanephrines and 3-methoxytyramine using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 414, 3541–3549 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-03984-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-03984-x

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