A highly sensitive quantification method for 12 plant toxins in human serum using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry with a quick solid-phase extraction technique

We developed a highly sensitive quantification method using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) for 12 plant toxins in human serum. In this paper, we selected lycorine, galanthamine, protoveratrine A, protoveratrine B, veratramine, veratridine, jervine, cyclopamine, cevadine, alpha-solanine, alpha-chaconine, and solanidine as targeted analytes. The ADME column was utilized for LC separation and a Monolithic SPE column (MonoSpin (R) C18) for analyte extraction. The total time for SPE clean-up and LC/MS/MS analysis was completed within 30 min. The method validation results were as follows: the linearity (r(2)) of each calibration curve was over 0.99; the inter- and intra-day accuracies were 92.7 %-116 % and 91.6 %-106 %, respectively; and the inter- and intra-day precisions were below 14 % and 11 %, respectively. Also, the lower limits of detection and quantification were 0.0071-0.15 and 0.022-0.46 ng/mL, respectively, indicating the method's high sensitivity. Finally, to confirm its feasibility, our method was applied to two model samples: (1) commercially available human serum and (2) pseudo poisoning serum via dilution of mouse serum with human serum. We were able to quantify alpha-chaconine at 0.84 +/- 0.02 ng/mL in the serum (Case 1) and protoveratrine A at 0.15 +/- 0.032 ng/mL in the pseudo poisoning serum (Case 2), demonstrating our method's practicality. This is the first time that the 12 plant toxins in human serum were simultaneously quantitated. Our method can investigate accidental poisonings involving toxic plants, enabling prompt decisions on patient treatment. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A highly sensitive quantification method using LC/MS/MS was developed for simultaneous analysis of 12 plant toxins in human serum. The method demonstrated excellent linearity, accuracy, precision, and sensitivity in validation studies. Application of this method to model samples confirmed its practicality for prompt decision-making in accidental poisonings involving toxic plants.