Rapid and One-Step Screening of Taxane Compounds by a Two-Dimensional Carbon Microfiber Fractionation System Combined with Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Taxane compounds have attracted wide attention due to the basic chemical structure of taxol as an alternative anticancer drug. The full-scan tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) fragmentation behaviors of seven taxane compounds were studied. For taxanes of Sc-T and Sc-T-Xyl types, diagnostic product ions are originated from a cleavage in the ester bond of the C position and the C-O bond of the C position, and the subsequent fragmentation pattern is similar to those of M-type taxanes with the loss of different numbers of acetic acid moieties (AcOH), benzoic acid moieties (BzOH), and HO molecules. A rapid (7 min) and one-step screening method of two-dimensional microscale carbon fiber and active carbon fiber columns combined with tandem mass spectrometry (2DμCFs-MS/MS) was developed for the screening of taxane compounds from samples. Before MS/MS analysis, the 2DμCFs system can group the sample extract without any pretreatment into three chromatographic-type fractions of strong, medium, and weak polarity to avoid matrix interference, such as lipids and pigments. The 2DμCFs-MS/MS can also conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis of taxane compounds, which is evaluated by limits of detection ranging from 3 to 50 ng mL, limits of quantitation ranging from 10 to 150 ng mL, satisfactory recoveries from 75.2 to 112.2%, and reproducibilities with relative standard deviations from 1.4 to 11.7%.