Analysing metabolomes from various natural sources is a task that requires methods providing high chromatographic resolution for detailed metabolite profiling or high throughput for rapid fingerprinting for metabolomics [1,2]. Furthermore these methods should give on-line spectroscopic information for the identification of each individual metabolite for dereplication purposes. In this respect the introduction of UHPLC has allowed a remarkable decrease in analysis time and increase in peak capacity, sensitivity and reproducibility compared to conventional HPLC. In complement to this powerful chromatographic method, the introduction of benchtop high resolution MS instruments that provide sensitive detection and accurate MS and MS/MS information for dereplication has been key for metabolomics. Recently the development of neural network mining methods for metabolite identification have revolutionized conventional MS/MS database search for establishing link between metabolites having similar fragmentation pattern that greatly help metabolite annotation. For unambiguous de-novo identification, LC-MS targeted isolation together with at-line microNMR approaches provide low microgram level of metabolites sufficient for acquiring a full set of 1D and 2D NMR spectra. Such information complements well the search in MS and chemotaxonomic data bases for dereplication. In addition to these methods, HPLC activity-based profiling provides information on the bioactivity of metabolites of interest, directly at the analytical scale, speeding up the drug discovery process in natural product research. The impact of these technologies in NP research studies and future trends will be discussed. This will be illustrated by examples or our latest metabolomics and bioactivity-guided isolation studies on plants and microorganisms.
1. Wolfender JL, Rudaz S, Choi YH, Kim HK. Plant metabolomics: from holistic data to relevant biomarkers. Curr. Med. Chem. 2013 20: 1056-90.
2. Wolfender J-L, Marti G, Thomas A, Bertrand S. Current approaches and challenges for the metabolite profiling of complex natural extracts. J Chromatogr A 2015 1382: 136-164.
Presenting author:
Jean-Luc Wolfender
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, EPGL, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne, 30, quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
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Authors:
Jean-Luc Wolfender - School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, EPGL, University of Geneva, University of Lausanne, 30, quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
