Bacterial identification by lipid profiling using liquid atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

Lellman, S. E. and Cramer, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8037-2511 (2019) Bacterial identification by lipid profiling using liquid atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, 58 (6). pp. 930-938. ISSN 1437-4331 doi: 10.1515/cclm-2019-0908

Abstract/Summary

Background In recent years, mass spectrometry (MS) has been applied to clinical microbial biotyping, exploiting the speed of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) in recording microbe-specific MS profiles. More recently, liquid atmospheric pressure (AP) MALDI has been shown to produce extremely stable ion flux from homogenous samples and 'electrospray ionization (ESI)-like' multiply charged ions for larger biomolecules, whilst maintaining the benefits of traditional MALDI including high tolerance to contaminants, low analyte consumption and rapid analysis. These and other advantages of liquid AP-MALDI MS have been explored in this study to investigate its potential in microbial biotyping. Methods Genetically diverse bacterial strains were analyzed using liquid AP-MALDI MS, including clinically relevant species such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Bacterial cultures were subjected to a simple and fast extraction protocol using ethanol and formic acid. Extracts were spotted with a liquid support matrix (LSM) and analyzed using a Synapt G2-Si mass spectrometer with an in-house built AP-MALDI source. Results Each species produces a unique lipid profile in the m/z range of 400-1100, allowing species discrimination. Traditional (solid) MALDI MS produced spectra containing a high abundance of matrix-related clusters and an absence of lipid peaks. The MS profiles of the bacterial species tested form distinct clusters using principle component analysis (PCA) with a classification accuracy of 98.63% using a PCA-based prediction model. Conclusions Liquid AP-MALDI MS profiles can be sufficient to distinguish clinically relevant bacterial pathogens and other bacteria, based on their unique lipid profiles. The analysis of the lipid MS profiles is typically excluded from commercial instruments approved for clinical diagnostics.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/88285
Identification Number/DOI	10.1515/cclm-2019-0908
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry
Uncontrolled Keywords	bacteria, biotyping, lipids, mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), profiling, speciation
Publisher	De Gruyter
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item