Improved Sensitivity of Low-abundance Lipids

Selected ion monitoring to increase the sensitivity of nano-DESI MSI towards eicosanoids.

Collaboration with Spectroswiss, Merck, Abbvie, Agilent

We are developing approaches for sensitive label-free imaging of multiple classes of molecules in biological samples. In one study, we used selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode to increase the sensitivity nano-DESI MSI towards eicosanoids, important lipid mediators of inflammation, asthma, fever, pain, hypertension, and stroke. In a second study, we explored the effect of ammonium fluoride (NH4F) as a solvent additive for enhanced imaging of lipids in biological tissues. We observed a 10-fold to 110-fold enhancement of lipids in negative ionization mode in the presence of NH4F in the nano-DESI solvent. These signal enhancement approaches may be expanded to other low-abundance molecules in biological systems.

Publications

Weigand, M. Yang, H. Hu, C. Zensho, J. Laskin, Enhancement of lipid signals with ammonium fluoride in negative mode Nano-DESI mass spectrometry imaging, International Journal of Mass Spectrometry. (2022) 116859. doi:10.1016/j.ijms.2022.116859.