Interlaboratory Comparative Results from Ceramide Quantitation in Human Plasma Samples

MARÍA EUGENIA MONGE; MALENA MANZI; MANUELA MARTINEFSKI; FEDERICO TORTA; MARKUS R. WENK; MÓNICA P. CALA

Congreso; XI Congreso Argentino de Química Analítica; 2021

Mass Spectrometry-based metabolomics and lipidomics technologies can be transformative for disease diagnosis and contribute to global health equity. Metabolite or lipid panels are promising to translate findings from untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics studies to the clinical setting. However, this process is still a challenge, partially due to the difficulty in comparing results from different laboratories. Reference Materials allow data quality comparisons across different studies within a laboratory and across different laboratories and can, thus, be used as interlaboratory quality control samples.1In this study, we have compared the analytical performance of two different ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS)-based methods for ceramide quantitation in human plasma samples. The corresponding isotopically labelled ceramides of the four endogenous target compounds were used as internal standards, according to Kauhanen et al.2 The method applied in Argentina utilized UHPLC coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) MS, whereas the method implemented in Colombia was based on UHPLC coupled to triple quadrupole (QqQ) tandem MS (MS/MS). Both methods were used for ceramide quantitation in a new suite of candidate human plasma reference materials, currently under development by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; hypertriglyceridemic, diabetic, and African-American plasma pools), in addition to NIST SRM 1950 Metabolites in Frozen Human Plasma to be used in metabolomics and lipidomics studies. The analytical figures of merit, strengths and limitations of these MS-based methods will be presented and discussed.Ceramide quantitation was conducted by both CIBION-CONICET and MetCore laboratories in the frame of an international ring trial initiated and coordinated by members at the Singapore Lipidomics Incubator (SLING), and now anchored at the International Lipidomics Society (ILS) focused on establishing absolute concentrations values for certain lipids in plasma reference materials that would allow cross-platform comparability and a potential adoption in the clinics with the aim of harmonizing lipidomics (https://lipidomicssociety.org/). 1.Simón-Manso, Y.; Lowenthal, M.S.; Kilpatrick, L.E.; Sampson, M.; Telu, K.H.; Rudnick, P.A.; Mallard, W.G.; Bearden, D.W.; Schock, T.B.; Tchekhovskoi, D.V.; et al. (2013) Analytical Chemistry, 85, 11725?11731.2.Kauhanen, D., Sysi-Aho, M., Koistinen, K. M., Laaksonen, R., Sinisalo, J. & Ekroos, K. (2016) Analytical Bioanallitical Chemistry, 408:3475?3483.AcknowledgmentsAuthors want to acknowledge NIST for providing the suite of candidate reference materials and Avanti Polar Lipids for providing the standards.