Quantitation of neurotoxic metabolites of the kynurenine pathway by laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS)

Abstract

The metabolites of the mammalian kynurenine (KYN) pathway are generated from a branch of tryptophan metabolic pathway. The latter generates 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK), kynurenic acid (KYNA), quinolinic acid (QUIN), and picolinic acid (PIC) which are all strongly neuroactive, often with dramatically contrasting functional outcomes. Whereas KYNA and PIC are neuroprotective, 3-HK and QUIN are potently neurotoxic and attributed in major neurodegenerative diseases like schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, bipolar disorder, and depression. It is increasingly evident that the ratio(s) between the neurotoxic and neuroprotective metabolites may help predict the manifestations of disease vs. health. Therefore high-throughput platforms for determining the relative levels of these kynurenine metabolites in biofluids offer considerable potential. Current analytical tools for studying KYN pathway include assays of branching enzymes, PCR, immunoanalysis, and LCMS. None of these offer high-throughput, cost-effective analyses suited for clinical or drug-screening applications. In this report a laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) method is described using SBA-15 mesoporous silica. The system allows fast, high-resolution quantitation of neurotoxic kynurenines using targeted metabolomics on conventional MALDI platforms.