Fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs) are a new class of lipid mediators with promising anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties. Comprehensive screening and identification of FAHFAs in biological samples would be beneficial to the discovery of new FAHFAs and enable greater understanding of their biological functions. Here, we report the comprehensive screening of FAHFAs in rice and  Arabidopsis thaliana by chemical isotope labeling-assisted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (CIL-LC-MS). Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) was used for screening of FAHFAs. With the proposed method, we detected 49 potential FAHFA families, including 262 regioisomers, in tissues of rice and Arabidopsis thaliana, which greatly extends our knowledge of known FAHFAs. In addition, we proposed a strategy to identify FAHFA regioisomers based on their retention on a reversed-phase LC column. Using the proposed identification strategy, we identified 71 regioisomers from 11 FAHFA families based on commercial standards and characteristic chromatographic retention behaviors. The screening technique could allow for the discovery of new FAHFAs in biological samples. The new FAHFAs identified in this work will contribute to the in-depth study of the functions of FAHFAs.

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5-Methylcytosine (5-mC) is an important epigenetic mark that plays critical roles in a variety of cellular processes. To properly exert physiological functions, the distribution of 5-mC needs to be tightly controlled in both DNA and RNA. In addition to methyltransferase-mediated DNA and RNA methylation, premethylated nucleotides can be potentially incorporated into DNA and RNA during replication and transcription. To exclude the premodified nucleotides into DNA and RNA, endogenous 5-methyl-2'-deoxycytidine monophosphate (5-Me-dCMP) generated from nucleic acids metabolism can be enzymatically deaminated to thymidine monophosphate (TMP). Therefore, previous studies failed to detect 5-Me-dCMP or 5-methylcytidine monophosphate (5-Me-CMP) in cells. In the current study, we established a method by chemical labeling coupled with liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) for sensitive and simultaneous determination of 10 nucleotides, including 5-Me-dCMP and 5-Me-CMP. As N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DMPA) was utilized for labeling, the detection sensitivities of nucleotides increased by 88-372-fold due to the introduction of a tertiary amino group and a hydrophobic moiety from DMPA. Using this method, we found that endogenous 5-Me-dCMP and 5-Me-CMP widely existed in cultured human cells, human tissues, and human urinary samples. The presence of endogenous 5-Me-dCMP and 5-Me-CMP indicates that deaminases may not fully deaminate these methylated nucleotides. Consequently, the remaining premethylated nucleosides could be converted to nucleoside triphosphates as building blocks for DNA and RNA synthesis. Furthermore, we found that the contents of 5-Me-dCMP and 5-Me-CMP exhibited significant decreases in renal carcinoma tissues and urine samples of lymphoma patients compared to their controls, probably due to more reutilization of methylated nucleotides in DNA and RNA synthesis. This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report for detecting endogenous 5-Me-dCMP and 5-Me-CMP in mammals. The detectable endogenous methylated nucleotides indicate the potential deleterious effects of premodified nucleotides on aberrant gene regulation in cancers.

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Identification of metabolites at the trace level in complex samples is still one of the major challenges in untargeted metabolomics. One formula in the metabolomic database is always corresponding to more than one candidate, which increases the difficulty and cost in the subsequent process of standard compound matching. In this study, we developed an effective method for amine metabolite identification by hydrogen–deuterium scrambling (HDS) based on chemical isotope labeling coupled with liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HDS–CIL–LC–MS). After d 4-4-(N,N-dimethylamino)­phenyl isothiocyanate (d 4-DMAP) labeling, the labeled amine metabolites can produce HDS under collision-induced dissociation (CID). The HDS can effectively reflect the number of labile hydrogen atoms in amine metabolites and thus distinguish amine isomers with different functional groups. The developed HDS–CIL–LC–MS method was applied to the determination of amine metabolites in mice feces, in which the amine candidates obtained by the database based on chemical formula searching were reduced by 64% on average, which greatly reduces the cost of standard compound matching. Taken together, the developed HDS–CIL–LC–MS analysis was demonstrated to be a promising method for untargeted metabolomics and a novel strategy for deciphering tandem mass spectrometry (MS2) spectra.

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