VAMS-based blood capillary sampling for mass-spectrometry-based human metabolomics studies
Volani et al.
The finding, in our words
Capillary VAMS blood covered more of the metabolome than plasma, capturing intracellular red-cell metabolites, and correlated moderately-to-well with venous, Spearman 0.66; the honest caveats are higher finger-prick replicate variability and a need for −80 °C storage within six hours.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Capillary blood collection using volumetric absorptive microsampling demonstrated equivalent quantification of principal colonic polyphenol metabolites compared with matched venous plasma across a six-hour period following barley biscuit consumption. The technique successfully captured the pharmacokinetic profiles over 48 hours, confirming VAMS as a reliable alternative to venepuncture for dietary biomarker monitoring.
Untargeted metabolomic profiles from three blood microsampling devices aligned more closely with whole blood than with plasma, and all devices distinguished sex based on amino acids, lipids, and acylcarnitines. This validates that device choice can be tailored to the metabolites of interest for decentralised human biomonitoring.
A comparison of three patient-centric dried blood microsampling devices, paper DBS, Mitra and Tasso-M20, found strong to excellent correlation with traditional venous plasma for measuring branched-chain amino acids and ketoacids. Participants reported high acceptability and expressed a strong willingness to use these devices for decentralised self-collection.
A validated offline SPE-LC-MS/MS method using the Mitra microsampling device successfully quantified tacrolimus, cyclosporine A, tryptophan, kynurenine, and creatinine simultaneously. The method met EMA and FDA criteria, showing agreement between capillary and venous sampling, which could facilitate decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring and transplant follow-up through patient self-collection.
This study found that dried blood microsamples, particularly those collected with the Mitra device, provided metabolic profiles comparable or superior to conventional plasma, supporting their use as a viable alternative for untargeted metabolomics.