Peak alignment is a crucial data-processing step in untargeted metabolomics analysis that aims to integrate metabolite data from multiple liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) batches for enhanced comparability and reliability. However, slight variations in the chromatographic separation conditions can result in retention time (RT) shifts between consecutive analyses, adversely affecting peak alignment accuracy. In this study, we present a retention index (RI)-based chromatographic peak-shift correction (CPSC) strategy to address RT shifts and align chromatographic peaks for metabolomics studies. A series of N-acyl glycine homologues (C2-C23) was synthesized as calibrants, and an LC RI system was established. This system effectively corrected RT shifts arising from variations in flow rate, gradient elution, instrument systems, and chromatographic columns. Leveraging the RI system, we successfully adjusted the RT of raw data to mitigate RT shifts and then implemented the Joint Aligner algorithm for peak alignment. We assessed the accuracy of the RI-based CPSC strategy using pooled human fecal samples as a test model. Notably, the application of the RI-based CPSC strategy to a long-term dataset spanning 157 d as an illustration revealed a significant enhancement in peak alignment accuracy from 15.5% to 80.9%, indicating its ability to substantially improve peak-alignment precision in multibatch LC-MS analyses.
色谱峰对齐(peak alignment)是非靶向代谢组学分析中常用的数据处理步骤。色谱峰对齐的目的是整合多批次液相色谱-质谱(LC-MS)分析得到的代谢物数据,从而确保数据的可比性与可靠性。然而,微小的色谱分离条件变化会导致连续分析之间的色谱保留时间(retention time, RT)漂移,进而影响色谱峰对齐的准确性。本文提出了一种基于保留指数系统的色谱峰漂移校正策略(retention index-based chromatographic peak-shift correction, RI-based CPSC),应用于代谢物的保留时间漂移校正和色谱峰对齐。为此,我们合成了一系列N-酰基甘氨酸(C2~C23)同系物作为校正物,建立了一套液相色谱保留指数系统。该保留指数系统能够有效修正由流速、洗脱梯度、仪器系统和色谱柱变化所引起的色谱保留时间漂移。利用保留指数系统,我们构建了基于Python的程序(
Keywords: liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); peak alignment; retention index (RI); retention time shift.