Amer, B.; Deshpande, R.R.; Bird, S.S. Simultaneous Quantitation and Discovery (SQUAD) Analysis: Combining the Best of Targeted and Untargeted Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics. Metabolites2023, 13, 648.
Amer, B.; Deshpande, R.R.; Bird, S.S. Simultaneous Quantitation and Discovery (SQUAD) Analysis: Combining the Best of Targeted and Untargeted Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics. Metabolites 2023, 13, 648.
Amer, B.; Deshpande, R.R.; Bird, S.S. Simultaneous Quantitation and Discovery (SQUAD) Analysis: Combining the Best of Targeted and Untargeted Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics. Metabolites2023, 13, 648.
Amer, B.; Deshpande, R.R.; Bird, S.S. Simultaneous Quantitation and Discovery (SQUAD) Analysis: Combining the Best of Targeted and Untargeted Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics. Metabolites 2023, 13, 648.
Abstract
Untargeted and targeted approaches are the traditional metabolomics workflows acquired for a wider understanding of the metabolome under focus. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. The untargeted, for example, is maximizing the detection and accurate identification of thousands of metabolites, while the targeted is maximizing the linear dynamic range and quantification sensitivity. These workflows, however, are acquired separately, so researchers compromise either a low-accuracy overview of total molecular changes (i.e., untargeted analysis) or a detailed yet blinkered snapshot of a selected group of metabolites (i.e., targeted analysis) by selecting one of the workflows over the other. In this review, we present a novel single injection simultaneous quantitation and discovery (SQUAD) metabolomics that combines targeted and untargeted workflows. It is used to identify and accurately quantify a targeted set of metabolites. It also allows data retro-mining to look for global metabolic changes that were not part of the original focus. This offers a way to strike the balance between targeted and untargeted approaches in one single experiment and address the two’s limitations. This simultaneous acquisition of hypothesis-led and discovery-led datasets allows scientists to gain more knowledge about biological systems in a single experiment.
Keywords
Metabolomics; Simultaneous Quantitation and Discovery (SQUAD); Targeted Metabolomics; Untargeted Metabolomics
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
