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Simultaneous determination of urinary 31 metabolites of VOCs, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine, and trans-3′-hydroxycotinine by UPLC-MS/MS: 13C- and 15N-labeled isotoped internal standards are more effective on reduction of matrix effect

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Abstract

Human beings are inevitably exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of anthropogenic emissions as they are ubiquitous atmospheric pollutants. Smoking is an important exposure route of VOCs for the general population. Health effects induced by VOC exposure raise more concerns as they are identified with carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. trans-3′-Hydroxycotinine (OH-Cot) is a urinary biomarker of smoking, and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHDG) is a urinary biomarker of DNA oxidative damage. To develop a method for quantifying VOC exposure levels of the general population and assessing the health risks induced by VOCs from second-hand smoking, an effective, rapid, and high-throughput method for the simultaneous determination of 31 metabolites of VOCs, 8-OHDG, and OH-Cot using solid-phase extraction coupled with UPLC-MS/MS was developed and validated. Method precision and accuracy, extraction recoveries, matrix effects, and storage stabilities of most analytes met the criterion (80–120%). Extraction recoveries increased from 85.1 to 100% after adjustment by isotoped internal standards (ISs). Furthermore, 13C- and 15N-labeled ISs were more effective to reduce the influence of matrix effects on recoveries and precisions than the deuterated analogs (73.0–116% vs. 53.6–140%). This developed method was successfully applied to determine urine samples collected from children. Results showed that N-acetyl-S-(3,4-dihydrobutyl)-l-cysteine, 2,2′-thiodiacetic acid (TGA), and N-acetyl-S-(3-hydroxypropyl-1-methyl)-l-cysteine (HPMMA) were well correlated with 8-OHDG with coefficients higher than 0.82, indicating those VOCs might easily lead to DNA damage. In conclusion, our co-monitoring of metabolites of VOCs with 8-OHDG and OH-Cot in one method provides a robust analytical method, which not only suggests the potential adverse health effects induced by VOCs but also discriminates and evaluates the contribution of passive smoking in human VOC exposure.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41731279, No. 21477041, No. 21777048).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Drug and Food Biological Resources Processing and Comprehensive Utilization, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China

    Hongxuan Kuang, Yonghong Li, Haibin Zhang, Qihua Pang & Ruifang Fan

  2. Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou, 510120, Guangdong, China

    Wenhui Jiang & Peiqiong Wu

  3. Guangzhou Quality Supervision and Testing Institute, Guangzhou, 511447, Guangdong, China

    Jianhua Tan

  4. Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Environmental Catalysis and Pollution Control, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Catalysis and Health Risk Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China

    Shengtao Ma & Taicheng An

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  1. Hongxuan Kuang
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Correspondence to Ruifang Fan.

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This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of South China Normal University (No. 2017012). The parent or guardian of each participant signed an informed consent and was required to complete a questionnaire including gender, age, height, weight, lifestyle habits, and passive smoking frequency as well as the past medical history and genetics of their children before sampling.

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Kuang, H., Li, Y., Jiang, W. et al. Simultaneous determination of urinary 31 metabolites of VOCs, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine, and trans-3′-hydroxycotinine by UPLC-MS/MS: 13C- and 15N-labeled isotoped internal standards are more effective on reduction of matrix effect. Anal Bioanal Chem 411, 7841–7855 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-019-02202-5

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