Strategy to Empower Nontargeted Metabolomics by Triple-Dimensional Combinatorial Derivatization with MS-TDF Software

Chemical derivatization is a widely employed strategy in metabolomics to enhance metabolite coverage by improving chromatographic behavior and increasing the ionization rates in mass spectroscopy (MS). However, derivatization might complicate MS data, posing challenges for data mining due to the lack of a corresponding benchmark database. To address this issue, we developed a triple-dimensional combinatorial derivatization strategy for nontargeted metabolomics. This strategy utilizes three structurally similar derivatization reagents and is supported by MS-TDF software for accelerated data processing. Notably, simultaneous derivatization of specific metabolite functional groups in biological samples produced compounds with stable but distinct chromatographic retention times and mass numbers, facilitating discrimination by MS-TDF, an in-house MS data processing software. In this study, carbonyl analogues in human plasma were derivatized using a combination of three hydrazide-based derivatization reagents: 2-hydrazinopyridine, 2-hydrazino-5-methylpyridine, and 2-hydrazino-5-cyanopyridine (6-hydrazinonicotinonitrile). This approach was applied to identify potential carbonyl biomarkers in lung cancer. Analysis and validation of human plasma samples demonstrated that our strategy improved the recognition accuracy of metabolites and reduced the risk of false positives, providing a useful method for nontargeted metabolomics studies. The MATLAB code for MS-TDF is available on GitHub at https://github.com/CaixiaYuan/MS-TDF.