Mass spectrometric analysis of the marine lipophilic biotoxins pectenotoxin-2 and okadaic acid by four different types of mass spectrometers.

The performances of four different mass spectrometers [triple-quadrupole (TQ), time-of-flight (ToF), quadrupole ToF (Q-ToF) and ion trap (IT)] for the detection of the marine lipophilic toxins pectenotoxin-2 (PTX2) and okadaic acid (OA) were investigated. The spectral data obtained with the different mass spectrometric analyzers were used to propose fragmentation schemes for PTX2 in the positive electrospray mode and for OA in the negative electrospray mode. TQ data were used to obtain product ions, while ToF and Q-ToF-MS produced accurate mass data of the precursor ion and product ions, respectively. IT data provided a better understanding of the fragmentation pathways using MS(n) experiments. With respect to analytical performance, all four mass analyzers showed a good linearity (R(2) > 0.97) and repeatability (CV < 20%). Detection limits (LoDs) (S/N = 3) were the lowest on triple-quad MS: 12.2 and 2.9 pg on-column for PTX2 and OA, respectively.