A series
of novel anthranilic acid derivatives I–IV, of which COOH-NH2 (I) and COOH-NHMe
(IV) are endowed with acid and base bifunctionality,
were designed and synthesized for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry applications in dual
polarity molecular imaging of biological samples, particularly for
lipids. The heat of protonation, deprotonation, and proton transfer
reaction as well as the capability of analyzing biomolecules in both
positive and negative ion modes for I–IV were systematically investigated under standard 355 nm laser excitation.
The results indicate correlation between dual polarity and acid–base
property. Further, COOH-NHMe (IV) showed a unique performance
and was successfully applied as the matrix for MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry
imaging (MSI) for studying the mouse brain. Our results demonstrate
the superiority of COOH-NHMe (IV) in detecting more lipid
and protein species compared to commercially available matrices. Moreover,
MALDI-TOF MSI results were obtained for lipid distributions, making
COOH-NHMe (IV) a potential next generation universal
matrix.