Mass spectrometric identification of modified urinary nucleosides used as potential biomedical markers by LC-ITMS coupling

In diseases accompanied by strong metabolic disorders, like cancer and AIDS, modifying enzymes are up- or down-regulated. As a result, many different types of metabolic end-products, including abnormal amounts of modified nucleosides, are found in urine. These nucleosides are degradation products of an impaired ribonucleic acid (RNA) metabolism, which affects the nucleoside pattern in urine. In several basic experiments we elucidated the fragmentation pathways of 16 characteristic nucleosides and six corresponding nucleic bases that occur in urine using electrospray ionization ion trap MS5 (ESI-ITMS) experiments operated in positive ionization mode. For urinary nucleoside analysis, we developed an auto-LC-MS3 method based on prepurification via boronate gel affinity chromatography followed by reversed phase chromatography. For this purpose, an endcapped LiChroCART Superspher RP 18 column with a gradient of ammonium formate and a methanol-water mixture was used. This method gives a limit of detection of between 0.1 and 9.6 mu mol for 15 standard nucleosides, depending on the basicity of the nucleoside. Overall, the detection of 36 nucleosides from urine was feasible. It was shown that this auto-LC-MS3 method is a valuable tool for assigning nucleosides from complex biological matrices, and it may be utilized in the diagnosis of diseases associated with disorders in RNA metabolism.