Study on HILIC Separation Conditions for DNA Adductomics

The concept of comprehensive DNA adducts analysis (called DNA adductomics) has recently been attracting attention, and the development of a highly sensitive and accurate quantitative method for DNA adductomics has been desired. In our previous research on LC-ESI-MS/MS, hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) was found to be effective for improving the sensitivity concerning the quantitation of DNA adducts. Although HILIC-ESI-MS/MS is useful for the quantitation of DNA adducts, the improvement of HILIC separation for DNA adductomics must be still needed. In this paper, we describe the improvement of HILIC separations for DNA adductomics by investigating the composition of mobile phases and the commercially available HILIC columns with four difference polar groups. While the elution order for four 2'-deoxynucleosides and the two DNA adducts was not drastically changed by varying the HILIC columns, the separation of each dN and DNA adducts was improved by adding alcohols and by varying the alcoholic concentration.