Human Urine Metabolomics: A Targeted Assessment of Vitamin B3 and Isoflavone-Based Metabolites

Accurate identification of vitamin B3 and isoflavone-based metabolites is a major challenge for overall health assessments in humans. Human urine metabolomics offers a noninvasive means of assessing human health and disease. Combined with liquid or gas chromatography (i.e., LC-MS or GC-MS), urine metabolomics employs mass spectrometry to identify metabolites in urine. Mass spectrometry (MS) provides the most selective, sensitive, and capable analytical technique to investigate compositions of most metabolites in human urine. LC-MS is unequivocally the most preferred and useful analytical chemistry technique used for urine metabolomics. A targeted approach (e.g., profiling of metabolites) in urine metabolomics identifies and quantifies a single or a group of metabolites within urine samples. In this thesis project, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) instrument coupled with a quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometer (QToF-MS) was used to assess vitamin B3 and isoflavone-based derivatives in human urine samples.