World Mycotoxin Journal, February 2014; 7 (1): 35-44 Wageningen Academic Publisher s ISSN 1875-0710 print, ISSN 1875-0796 online, DOI 10.3920/WMJ2013.1595 35 1. Introduction In recent years, the indoor environment has gained increasing attention due to health complaints of inhabitants. A term called sick building syndrome (SBS) was introduced to describe a set of health problems associated with poor indoor air quality. Indoor air problems include insufficient ventilation, excess temperature and dry air, emission of chemicals from construction materials, mites and fungal growth caused by water damage in a building (Husman, 1996). Serious consideration has been given to indoor moulds and their metabolites (mycotoxins), as one of the causative agents of SBS (Abbott, 2002). As a result, numerous studies have been dedicated to the investigation of selected mycotoxins in mouldy buildings. Several liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS) methods for mycotoxin detection in samples from mouldy indoor environments confirmed the presence of satratoxins and other trichothecenes, and sterigmatocystin (Bloom et al., 2007, 2009; Delmulle et al., 2006; Hintikka et al. , 2009; Polizzi et al. , 2009; Tuomi et al. , 2000). Among the targeted methods, the LC-MS/MS method of Untargeted screening of secondary metabolites in fungal cultures and samples from mouldy indoor environments by time-of-flight mass spectrometry S.V. Malysheva 1 , V. Polizzi 2 , A. Moretti 3 , C. Van Peteghem 1 , N. De Kimpe 2 , J. Van Bocxlaer 4 , J. Diana Di Mavungu 1 and S. De Saeger 1 1 Laboratory of Food Analysis, Department of Bio-analysis, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Harelbekestraat 72, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; 2 Department of Sustainable Organic Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; 3 Institute of Sciences of Food Production (ISPA), National Council of Research (CNR), Via Amendola 122/O, 70126 Bari, Italy; 4 Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry and Clinical Analysis, Department of Bio-analysis, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Harelbekestraat 72, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; svetlana.vl.malysheva@gmail.com Received: 18 May 2013 / Accepted: 20 September 2013 © 2013 Wageningen Academic Publishers RESEARCH ARTICLE Abstract Nowadays, complaints about poor indoor air quality have become common. The variety of indoor air health problems include chronic fatigue, allergy, skin and eye irritation, and can be caused by several factors including fungi and their metabolites present in a building. The objective of this study was to establish a method for untargeted analysis of secondary fungal metabolites in indoor environments. As a detection technique, time-of-flight mass spectrometry was chosen, as it provided mass accuracy and higher sensitivity in full scan acquisition mode compared to tandem mass spectrometers. The method was first applied to fungal cultures, namely Penicillium brevicompactum and Chaetomium murorum, which were isolated from mouldy houses and grown on building materials under laboratory conditions for 7-21 days. Following the proposed strategy based on accurate mass measurement and post-acquisition data processing using principal component analysis, roquefortine C, brevianamide A and mycophenolic acid were identified in Penicillium sp., while chaetoglobosin A was found to be produced by Chaetomium sp. Subsequently, samples from mouldy inhabited buildings were analysed using the developed method. The actual presence of meleagrin was demonstrated in mouldy indoor environment. Applying the method to air and dust samples collected in these mouldy buildings, no metabolites were detected possibly due to generally low concentrations in these types of samples. Keywords: indoor environments, untargeted screening, time-of-flight, sick building syndrome ${protocol}://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/pdf/10.3920/WMJ2013.1595 - Friday, June 01, 2018 10:32:56 PM - Utrecht University IP Address:131.211.208.19