In this paper, a high-throughput approach is proposed for the sensitive screening and the confirmatory analysis of polar compounds in saliva using a two-step approach based on a liquid chromatographic system coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. A reversed-phase chromatographic column was used in both steps and changes in the composition of the mobile phase allowed the screening and the confirmatory analyses to be performed with the same instrumental configuration. The proposed strategy has been tested for the determination of a multiclass group of polar endogenous compounds (creatinine, polyamines and amino acids) in saliva samples. The validation of the entire procedure showed consistent results for all the compounds in both steps. Repeatability and reproducibility were evaluated for both procedures, with values below 8% in the case of repeatability and 17% in the case of reproducibility. The instrumental limits of detection were found to be between 1.22 × 10-3 and 46.1 × 10-3 mg/L for creatinine and lysine, respectively, and accuracy of the method was evaluated in terms of apparent recoveries and values were found to be between 80 and 127%. Matrix effects were evaluated and it was found that the analytical outcome was influenced by the matrix of the sample. Thus, a one-point standard addition method was used for quantification. The optimized two-step procedure was applied to saliva samples from apparent healthy volunteers. Overall, satisfactory results were obtained in both steps, demonstrating its applicability for quantitative analysis of polar endogenous compounds in this kind of matrices.
Keywords: High-throughput screening analysis; Liquid chromatography; Multiclass polar compounds; Quantitative analysis; Saliva samples; Tandem mass spectrometry.
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