Lipid profiling of complex biological mixtures by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry using a novel scanning quadrupole data-independent acquisition strategy

Rationale A novel data-independent acquisition method is detailed that incorporates a scanning quadrupole in front of an orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyser. This approach is described and the attributes are compared and contrasted to other DIA approaches. Methods Specific application of the method to both targeted and untargeted lipidomic identification strategies is discussed, with data from both shotgun and LC separated lipidomics experiments presented. Results The benefits of the fast quadrupole scanning technique are highlighted, and include improvements in speed and specificity for complex mixtures providing high quality qualitative and quantitative data. Conclusions In particular the high specificity afforded by the scanning quadrupole improves qualitative information for lipid identification