Integration of a hybrid scan approach and in-house high-resolution MS2 spectral database for charactering the multicomponents of Xuebijing Injection

Abstract

Xuebijing (XBJ) Injection is a reputable patent Chinese medicine widely used to cure sepsis, among the Chinese ″Three Medicines and Three Prescriptions″ solution to fight against COVID-19. We were aimed to achieve the comprehensive multicomponent characterization from the single drugs to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula, by integrating powerful data acquisition and the in-house MS2 spectral database searching. By ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/ion mobility-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/IM-QTOF-MS), a hybrid scan approach (HDMSE-HDDDA) was developed, while the HDMSE data for five component drugs and 56 reference compounds were acquired and processed to establish an in-house MS2 spectral database of XBJ. Good resolution of the XBJ components was accomplished on a Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 column within 24 min, while a fit-for-purpose HDMSE-HDDDA approach was elaborated in two ionization modes for enhanced MS2 data acquisition. XBJ MS2 spectral library was thus established on the UNIFITM platform involving rich structure-related information for the chemicals from five component drugs. We could identify or tentatively characterize 294 components from XBJ, involving 81 flavonoids, 51 terpenoids, 42 phthalides, 40 organic acids, 13 phenylpropanoids, seven phenanthrenequinones, six alkaloids, and 54 others. In contrast to the application of conventional MS1 library, this newly established strategy could demonstrate superiority in the accuracy of identification results and the characterization of isomers, due to the more restricted filtering/matching criteria. Conclusively, the integration of the HDMSE-HDDDA hybrid scan approach and the in-house MS2 spectral database can favor the efficient and more reliable multicomponent characterization from single drugs to the TCM formula.