Quantitative Analysis of Acetyl-CoA, Malonyl-CoA, and Succinyl-CoA in Myocytes

J Am Soc Mass Spectrom. 2023 Nov 1;34(11):2567-2574. doi: 10.1021/jasms.3c00278. Epub 2023 Oct 9.

Abstract

Several analytical challenges make it difficult to accurately measure coenzyme A (CoA) metaboforms, including insufficient stability and a lack of available metabolite standards. Consequently, our understanding of CoA biology and the modulation of human diseases may be nascent. CoA's serve as lipid precursors, energy intermediates, and mediators of post-translational modifications of proteins. Here, we present a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) approach to measure malonyl-CoA, acetyl-CoA, and succinyl-CoA in complex biological samples. Additionally, we evaluated workflows to increase sample stability. We used reference standards to optimize CoA assay sensitivity and test CoA metabolite stability as a function of the reconstitution solvent. We show that using glass instead of plastic sample vials decreases CoA signal loss and improves the sample stability. We identify additives that improve CoA stability and facilitate accurate analysis of CoA species across large sample sets. We apply our optimized workflow to biological samples of skeletal muscle cells cultured under hypoxic and normoxia conditions. Together, our workflow improves the detection and identification of CoA species through targeted analysis in complex biological samples.

MeSH terms

  • Acetyl Coenzyme A / metabolism
  • Acyl Coenzyme A* / chemistry
  • Acyl Coenzyme A* / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Malonyl Coenzyme A* / metabolism
  • Muscle Cells / chemistry
  • Muscle Cells / metabolism

Substances

  • succinyl-coenzyme A
  • Malonyl Coenzyme A
  • Acetyl Coenzyme A
  • Acyl Coenzyme A