HIGHLY SENSITIVE LC/MS/MS WITH QTRAP® TECHNOLOGY: FIRST CHOICE TO QUANTIFY AND MONITOR MULTIPLE MARINE BIOTOXINS IN SEAFOOD AND PHYTOPLANKTON

In addition to regulated marine biotoxins we observe a rapidly growing demand to identify and quantify new or so called “Emerging Marine and Freshwater Biotoxins”. For the analysis of certain marine biotoxins a... [ view full abstract ]

In addition to regulated marine biotoxins we observe a rapidly growing demand to identify and quantify new or so called “Emerging Marine and Freshwater Biotoxins”. For the analysis of certain marine biotoxins a combination of liquid chromatography with tandem MS (LC-MS/MS) became a regulated standard technique. Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) is the preferred scan type for quantitation in this kind of application due to its high specificity and sensitivity. In addition, a full MS/MS spectrum which can be triggered by the first MRM transition using QTRAP^® based systems allows for additional confirmation. These “fingerprint“ Enhanced-Product-Ion scan (EPI) spectra can also be used for structural elucidation of variants in e.g. azaspiracid (AZA)-group toxins. With currently more than 100 identified marine biotoxins, there is a growing demand for powerful, robust, and rapid analytical methods, which can also detect low concentrations of these substances and their metabolites in phytoplankton to monitor bloom developments year-round. In some cases, interferences cannot be eliminated using MRM, so more elaborate sample cleanup and chromatography is often required. In such cases, the addition of a third MS stage has been shown to greatly increase selectivity and eliminate the high baseline or chromatographic interference. The result is a much lower LOQ due to a significantly improved signal-to-noise. The presented methodology includes automated software tools for data interpretation of phytoplankton bloom formation together with novel hardware strategies that provide a straightforward multi-component analysis for marine biotoxins.