Thesis title: Advanced Mass Spectrometry-based approaches in Nutraceutical Metabolomics and Clinical Proteomics
High-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) has evolved into a central tool for exploring biological systems at multiple molecular levels, from small-molecule diversity to protein signatures associated with health and disease. Within this broad analytical landscape, this doctoral thesis brings together two complementary MS-based applications—nutraceutical metabolomics and clinical proteomics—to illustrate how a single technological platform can generate insights across distinct yet interconnected layers of biological complexity.
In the first part, untargeted high-resolution metabolomics was employed to investigate food and plant-derived matrices rich in bioactive compounds. Direct-infusion Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (DIFT-ICR MS) enabled the metabolic profiling of certified nickel-free Solanum lycopersicum L. cultivars and of Pistacia lentiscus oil, obtained from cold-pressed berries, allowing the detection of a wide array of metabolites, particularly secondary metabolites, with nutritional and health-promoting properties, including classes of compounds widely recognized for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. These findings underscore the potential of natural products as valuable sources of functional molecules, with relevance ranging from nutrition and food production to nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications.
The second part focused on clinical proteomics, with the development of a bottom-up LC-MS/MS workflow for the absolute quantification of fecal calprotectin and lactoferrin, as biomarkers of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The label-based method was carefully optimized and validated on patient samples, demonstrating potential as a complementary or alternative strategy to immunoassays, providing enhanced specificity, multiplexing capability, and prospects for broader use in clinical diagnostics.
Overall, these applications demonstrate the capacity of mass spectrometry to capture molecular information across distinct yet complementary levels of biological organization, providing an integrated analytical perspective that advances the characterization of nutraceutical resources with potential health-promoting properties while also supporting the development of refined approaches for monitoring disease and inflammation-related processes in biomedical contexts.