Large scale breath metabolomics by two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC).

Large scale breath metabolomics by two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC).

Wilde M (1)* , Cordell C (1), Salman D (7), Ruszkiewicz D (7), Bryant L (1), Ibrahim W (2), Zhao B (2), Free R (2), Singapuri A (2), Parmar A (4), Coats T (3), Gaillard E (2), Beardsmore C (2), Suzuki T (3), Ng L (3, 5), Blower J (6), Greening N (2), Thomas P (7), Brightling C (2, 5), Siddiqui S (2) and Monks P (1)

1Department of Chemistry, 2Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, 3Cardiovascular Sciences, 4Research and Enterprise Partnerships, University of Leicester, UK; 5National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), UK; 6Leicester Fertility Centre, UHL Trust, UK; 7Centre for Analytical Science, Loughborough University, UK

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Abstract:

This study describes the development of a method for the analysis of breath, based on automated thermal desorption (TD) combined with flow modulated comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) with dual flame ionisation and quadrupole mass spectrometric detection (FID and qMS). The constrained optimisation and analytical protocol was shown to meet the practical demands of a large-scale multi-site clinical study. The efficacy of the method was demonstrated through the successful collection and analysis of breath samples from 380 patients presenting with acute cardiorespiratory disease. The method provides highly resolved chromatographic data, while the choice of a thermal desorption autosampler along with a lower cost and easy to use flow modulator and quadrupole mass spectrometer makes the advanced analytical technique accessible to high-throughput sampling. The analytical setup and the optimised method demonstrates the novel potential of GC×GC for the analysis of breath VOCs and its applicability to large-scale studies in breath metabolomics.