Development of Liquid Chromatographic Retention Index Based on Cocamide Diethanolamine Homologous Series (C(<i>n</i>)‑DEA)

There is a growing need for indexing and harmonizing retention time (tR) data in liquid chromatography derived under different conditions to aid in the identification of compounds in high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) based suspect and nontarget screening of environmental samples. In this study, a rigorously tested, inexpensive, and simple system-independent retention index (RI) approach is presented for liquid chromatography (LC), based on the cocamide diethanolamine homologous series (C­(n = 0–23)-DEA). The validation of the CDEA based RI system was checked rigorously on eight different instrumentation and LC conditions. The RI values were modeled using molecular descriptor free technique based on structural barcoding and convolutional neural network deep learning. The effect of pH on the elution pattern of more than 402 emerging contaminants were studied under diverse LC settings. The uncertainty associated with the CDEA RI model and the pH effect were addressed and the first RI bank based on CDEA calibrants was developed. The proposed RI system was used to enhance identification confidence in suspect and nontarget screening while facilitating successful comparability of retention index data between various LC settings. The CDEA RI app can be accessed at https://github.com/raalizadeh/RIdea

Development of Liquid Chromatographic Retention Index Based on Cocamide Diethanolamine Homologous Series (C(<i>n</i>)‑DEA)

There is a growing need for indexing and harmonizing retention time (tR) data in liquid chromatography derived under different conditions to aid in the identification of compounds in high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) based suspect and nontarget screening of environmental samples. In this study, a rigorously tested, inexpensive, and simple system-independent retention index (RI) approach is presented for liquid chromatography (LC), based on the cocamide diethanolamine homologous series (C­(n = 0–23)-DEA). The validation of the CDEA based RI system was checked rigorously on eight different instrumentation and LC conditions. The RI values were modeled using molecular descriptor free technique based on structural barcoding and convolutional neural network deep learning. The effect of pH on the elution pattern of more than 402 emerging contaminants were studied under diverse LC settings. The uncertainty associated with the CDEA RI model and the pH effect were addressed and the first RI bank based on CDEA calibrants was developed. The proposed RI system was used to enhance identification confidence in suspect and nontarget screening while facilitating successful comparability of retention index data between various LC settings. The CDEA RI app can be accessed at https://github.com/raalizadeh/RIdea

First Novel Workflow for Semiquantification of Emerging Contaminants in Environmental Samples Analyzed by Gas Chromatography–Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization–Quadrupole Time of Flight–Mass Spectrometry

The ionization efficiency of emerging contaminants was modeled for the first time in gas chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) which is coupled to an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization source (APCI). The recent chemical space has been expanded in environmental samples such as soil, indoor dust, and sediments thanks to recent use of high-resolution mass spectrometric techniques; however, many of these chemicals have remained unquantified. Chemical exposure in dust can pose potential risk to human health, and semiquantitative analysis is potentially of need to semiquantify these newly identified substances and assist with their risk assessment and environmental fate. In this study, a rigorously tested semiquantification workflow was proposed based on GC-APCI-HRMS ionization efficiency measurements of 78 emerging contaminants. The mechanism of ionization of compounds in the APCI source was discussed via a simple connectivity index and topological structure. The quantitative structure–property relationship (QSPR)-based model was also built to predict the APCI ionization efficiencies of unknowns and later use it for their quantification analyses. The proposed semiquantification method could be transferred into the household indoor dust sample matrix, and it could include the effect of recovery and matrix in the predictions of actual concentrations of analytes. A suspect compound, which falls inside the application domain of the tool, can be semiquantified by an online web application, free of access at http://trams.chem.uoa.gr/semiquantification/

Quantitative Structure–Retention Relationship Models To Support Nontarget High-Resolution Mass Spectrometric Screening of Emerging Contaminants in Environmental Samples

Over the past decade, the application of liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectroscopy (LC-HRMS) has been growing extensively due to its ability to analyze a wide range of suspected and unknown compounds in environmental samples. However, various criteria, such as mass accuracy and isotopic pattern of the precursor ion, MS/MS spectra evaluation, and retention time plausibility, should be met to reach a certain identification confidence. In this context, a comprehensive workflow based on computational tools was developed to understand the retention time behavior of a large number of compounds belonging to emerging contaminants. Two extensive data sets were built for two chromatographic systems, one for positive and one for negative electrospray ionization mode, containing information for the retention time of 528 and 298 compounds, respectively, to expand the applicability domain of the developed models. Then, the data sets were split into training and test set, employing <i>k</i>-nearest neighborhood clustering, to build and validate the models’ internal and external prediction ability. The best subset of molecular descriptors was selected using genetic algorithms. Multiple linear regression, artificial neural networks, and support vector machines were used to correlate the selected descriptors with the experimental retention times. Several validation techniques were used, including Golbraikh–Tropsha acceptable model criteria, Euclidean based applicability domain, modified correlation coefficient (<i>r</i>_m²), and concordance correlation coefficient values, to measure the accuracy and precision of the models. The best linear and nonlinear models for each data set were derived and used to predict the retention time of suspect compounds of a wide-scope survey, as the evaluation data set. For the efficient outlier detection and interpretation of the origin of the prediction error, a novel procedure and tool was developed and applied, enabling us to identify if the suspect compound was in the applicability domain or not

International Suspect Screening: NORMAN Suspect Exchange meets the US EPA CompTox Chemistry Dashboard

Presentation at Int'l Conference on Chemistry and the Environment (ICCE) June 201

Curating Suspect Lists for International Non-target Screening Efforts.ppt

<p>The NORMAN Network (<a href="http://www.norman-network.com/">www.norman-network.com</a>) is a unique network of reference laboratories, research centres and related organisations for monitoring of emerging environmental substances, through European and across the world. Key activities of the network include prioritization of emerging substances and non-target screening. A recent collaborative trial revealed that suspect screening (using specific lists of chemicals to find “known unknowns”) was a very common and efficient way to expedite non-target screening (Schymanski <i>et al</i>. 2015, DOI: <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00216-015-8681-7">10.1007/s00216-015-8681-7</a>). As a result, the NORMAN Suspect Exchange was founded (<a href="http://www.norman-network.com/?q=node/236">http://www.norman-network.com/?q=node/236</a>) and members were encouraged to submit their suspect lists. To date 20 lists of highly varying substance numbers (between 52 and 30,418), quality and information content have been uploaded, including valuable information previously unavailable to the public. All preparation and curation was done within the network using open access cheminformatics toolkits. Additionally, members expressed a desire for one merged list (“SusDat”). However, as a small network with very limited resources (member contributions only), the burden of curating and merging these lists into a high quality, curated dataset went beyond the capacity and expertise of the network. In 2017 the NORMAN Suspect Exchange and US EPA CompTox Chemistry Dashboard (<a href="https://comptox.epa.gov/">https://comptox.epa.gov/</a>) pooled resources in curating and uploading these lists to the Dashboard (<a href="https://comptox.epa.gov/dashboard/chemical_lists">https://comptox.epa.gov/dashboard/chemical_lists</a>). This talk will cover the curation and annotation of the lists with unique identifiers (known as DTXSIDs), plus the advantages and drawbacks of these for NORMAN (e.g. creating a registration/resource inter-dependence). It will cover the use of “MS-ready structure forms” with chemical substances provided in the form observed by the mass spectrometer (e.g. desalted, as separate components of mixtures) and how these efforts will support other NORMAN activities. Finally, limitations of existing cheminformatics approaches and future ideas for extending this work will be covered. <i>Note: </i><i>This abstract does not reflect US EPA policy</i>.<br></p

Curating “Suspect Lists” for International Non-target Screening Efforts

Presentation to American Chemical Society meeting March 201

Non-target Screening for Holistic Chemical Monitoring and Compound Discovery: Open Science, Real-time and Retrospective Approaches

Presentation to Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Europe Annual Meeting May 201

MOESM1 of Towards a reliable prediction of the aquatic toxicity of dyes

Additional file 1. Additional tables and figures

Additional file 3 of Alzheimer’s disease: using gene/protein network machine learning for molecule discovery in olive oil

Additional file 3 10 FDA-approved drugs and not undergoing AD clinical trials that were classified the highest by our model