Shotgun Lipidomic Profiling of Sebum Lipids via Photocatalyzed Paternò–Büchi Reaction and Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry

Sebum lipids are composed of nonpolar lipids, and they pose challenges for mass spectrometry-based analysis due to low ionization efficiency and the existence of numerous isomers and isobars. To address these challenges, we have developed ethyl 2-oxo-2-(pyridine-3-yacetate as a charge-tagging Paternò–Büchi reagent and Michler’s ketone as a highly efficient photocatalyst, achieving ∼90% conversion for C═C derivatization under 440 nm LED irradiation. This derivatization, when coupled with electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry, boosts the detection of sebum lipids and pinpoints C═C location in a chain-specific fashion. Identification and quantitation of isomers are readily achieved for wax esters, a class of underexplored sebum lipids, which have C═C bonds distributed in fatty alcohol and fatty acyl chains. A shotgun analysis workflow has been developed by pairing the offline PB derivatization with cyclic ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry. Besides the dominant n–10 C═C location in unsaturated wax esters, profiling of low abundance isomers, including the rarely reported n–7 and n–13 locations, is greatly enhanced due to separations of C═C diagnostic ions by ion mobility. Over 900 distinct lipid structures from human sebum lipid extract have been profiled at the chain-specific C═C level, including wax esters (500), glycerolipids (393), and cholesterol esters (22), far more exceeding previous reports. Overall, we have developed a fast and comprehensive lipidomic profiling tool for sebum samples, a type of noninvasive biofluids holding potential for the discovery of disease markers in distal organs.

• This study develops a photocatalyzed charge-tagging PB reaction system that achieves a C=C derivation conversion rate of ~90% under 440 nm LED irradiation.
• By combining the offline Paternò-Büchi (PB) derivatization with cyclic ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry, it reports over 900 lipid structures from human sebum lipid extract at the chain-specific C=C level, including the rarely reported low-abundance n-7 and n-13 C=C isomers.