A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for a semiquantitative screening of cellular acyl-CoA

This study describes LC-ESI-MS/MS method that covers the analysis of various cellular acyl-CoA in a single injection. The method is based on a quick extraction step eliminating LLE/SPE clean up. Method performance characteristics were determined after spiking acyl-CoA standards in different concentrations into a surrogate matrix. The extensive matrix effect for most acyl-CoA except for palmitoyl-CoA was compensated by using isotopically labeled internal standard and matrix-matched calibration. As a result of the high matrix effect, the accuracy for palmitoyl-CoA at the low concentration deviated from the target range of ±20%. The developed method was applied to identify twenty-one cellular acyl-CoA in SK-HEP-1 cells and screening for alterations in acyl-CoA levels post Mito Q antioxidant intervention.