Determination of tetrodotoxin in salted pufferfish by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To develop a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method with cation exchange-based solid phase extraction (SPE) for determination of tetrodotoxin (TTX) in salted pufferfish. @*Methods@#Evenly crushed salted pufferfish samples were subjected to ultrasound-assisted extraction with 0.5% acetic acid/50% methanol/water. The extract was cleaned with cation exchange-based SPE cartridge and eluted with 0.3% hydrochloric acid and 50% acetonitrile/water. The eluent was neutralized with ammonia and separated with a Waters XBridgeTM BEH Amide column (150 mm×3.0 mm, 1.7 μm), and determined using LC-MS/MS in a multiple reaction monitoring mode.@*Results@#The matrix effects of TTX were 85.7%-92.4%, and the matrix suppression effect was under effective control following clean-up procedures using the optimized SPE method. The TTX showed a good linear relationship at the range of 2.0 to 4 000 μg/kg, with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.999 2. The limits of detection and quantitation for TTX in sample matrix were 1.0 μg/kg and 2.0 μg/kg, respectively. The mean spiked-recovery rates were 81.2% to 96.5% at spiked amounts of 2.0, 200 μg/kg and 2 200 μg/kg, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 4.3% to 7.5%. The intraday accuracy and precision of TTX were 84.4% to 95.6% and 4.9% to 5.8% in quality control samples, and the interday accuracy and precision of TTX were 86.1% to 94.9% and 5.5% to 8.5% in quality control samples. The detection of TTX was 60.5% in 38 market-sold salted pufferfish products using the established LC-MS/MS method.@*Conclusion@#The established LC-MS/MS method is effective for accurate quantitative determination of TTX in salted pufferfish.