Grazing incidence surface-induced dissociation: molecules sliding along a surface

Principles of grazing incidence SID and a brief overview of previous works are summarized and the experimental setup for grazing incidence SID experiments is described. New results with fullerene C₆₀ are presented; these demonstrate that grazing incidence SID is not a special case of the conventional SID.     

Analysis of Cibacron blue F3G-A interaction with therapeutic proteins by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

The formation of the complexes between Cibacron blue F3G-A and two therapeutic proteins, recombinant human interferon-alpha2b and recombinant human growth hormone, was investigated. The method of time-resolved limited proteolysis coupled with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry was used. The analysis of peptide maps revealed that A(17)HR(19) and L(20)HQLAFDTYQEFEEAYIPK(38) of hGH, and R(14)TLMLLAQMR(23) and D(33)RHDFGFPQEEFGNQFQK(50) of hIFN-alpha2b, exhibit affinity to Cibacron blue F3G-A. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MALDI Imaging Assisted Discovery of a Di-O-glycosyltransferase from Platycodon grandiflorum Root

A matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI MSI) assisted genome mining strategy was developed for the discovery of glycosyltransferase (GT) from the root of Platycodon grandiflorum. A di-O-glycosyltransferase PgGT1 was discovered and characterized that is capable of catalyzing platycoside E (PE) synthesis through the attachment of two β-1,6-linked glucosyl residues sequentially to the glucosyl residue at the C3 position of platycodin D (PD). Although UDP-glucose is the preferred sugar donor for PgGT1, it could also utilize UDP-xylose and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine as weak donors. Residues S273, E274, and H350 played important roles in stabilizing the glucose donor and positioning the glucose in the optimal orientation for the glycosylation reaction. This study clarified two key steps involved in the biosynthetic pathway of PE and could greatly contribute to improving its industrial biotransformation.     

Nanodiamonds Used as a Platform for Studying Noncovalent Interaction by MALDI‐MS

作为一种新的,易于实现的快速分析方法,纳米金刚石被应用基于基质隔离激光解吸附电离质谱的非共价相互作用的研究中。表面覆盖有“饵分析物”的纳米金刚石被加入到含有“目标分析物”的溶液中,通过离心的方法进行分离,并用水清洗后再利用基质隔离激光解吸附电离质谱进行分析。同时,通过比较加入纳米金刚石前后的溶液的质谱图,亦可得到相关信息。这种平台可应用于分子间非共价相互作用的研究,并可进一步应用于选择性增强的基质隔离激光解吸附电离质谱分析中,一个例子就是表面覆盖聚赖氨酸的纳米金刚石在磷酸化多肽的质谱分析的应用。     

磷酸铵盐作为基质添加物促进磷酸化肽在MALDI-MS分析中的离子化效率

本文建立了以磷酸铵盐为添加剂的基质新系统,增强了磷酸化肽在MALDI正离子模式下的离子化。系统地考察了不同的磷酸盐以及不同的盐浓度对磷酸化肽离子化效率的影响。考察了两种适合于磷酸化肽离子化的基质类型2,5-二羟基苯甲酸和2,4,6-三羟基苯乙酮。用2,5-二羟基苯甲酸作为基质时,当加入10 mM 磷酸氢二铵时,磷酸化蛋白质β-casein的磷酸肽 48FQ[pS]EEQQQTEDELQDK63的离子化效率可以增强5-8倍,当加入10 mM磷酸二氢胺时,磷酸肽的离子化效率可以增强3-4倍。用2,4,6-三羟基苯乙酮作为基质时,当加入5mM磷酸氢二铵时,磷酸化肽的离子化效率比文献报道的最有利于磷酸化肽离子化的基质体系增强了2倍。并探讨了铵根离子和磷酸根离子促进磷酸化肽在MALDI的正离子模式下离子化效率的机理。     

On-target derivatization of keratan sulfate oligosaccharides with pyrenebutyric acid hydrazide for MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS

In the present work, a rapid and novel method of on-target plate derivatization of keratan sulfate (KS) oligosaccharides for subsequent analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry is described. MALDI-(time-of-flight)-TOF spectra of labeled KS oligosaccharides revealed that significantly improved ionization can be accomplished through derivatization with pyrenebutyric acid hydrazide (PBH), and the most abundant peak in each spectrum corresponds to the singly charged molecular ion [M - H]- or [M + (n - 1)Na - nH]-, where n = the number of sulfates (n = 1, 2, 3...). The high-energy collision-induced dissociation (heCID) spectra of labeled KS oligosaccharides displayed fragments of compounds similar to those observed with laser-induced dissociation (LID) analysis, suggesting that both heCID and LID fragmentations can be used to analyze KS oligosaccharides. Moreover, fragmentation analysis of all labeled KS oligosaccharides was performed by MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS. With LID mode, sodium adducts showed fragmentation of glycosidic linkages with mainly Y/B/C ions, as well as various cross-ring cleavages providing exact information for the positions of sulfate groups along the KS oligosaccharide chains. This one-step on-target derivatization method makes MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS identification of KS fast, simple and highly throughput for trace amounts of biological samples.     

Venomics: unravelling the complexity of animal venoms with mass spectrometry

Animal venoms and toxins are now recognized as major sources of bioactive molecules that may be tomorrow's new drug leads. Their complexity and their potential as drug sources have been demonstrated by application of modern analytical technologies, which have revealed venoms to be vast peptide combinatorial libraries. Structural as well as pharmacological diversity is immense, and mass spectrometry is now one of the major investigative tools for the structural investigation of venom components. Recent advances in its use in the study of venom and toxins are reviewed. The application of mass spectrometry techniques to peptide toxin sequence determination by de novo sequencing is discussed in detail, in the light of the search for novel analgesic drugs. We also present the combined application of LC-MALDI separation with mass fingerprinting and ISD fragmentation for the determination of structural and pharmacological classes of peptides in complex spider venoms. This approach now serves as the basis for the full investigation of complex spider venom proteomes, in combination with cDNA analysis.     

Differentiation of Vitis vinifera varieties by MALDI-MS analysis of the grape seed proteins

Until now the study of pathogenic related proteins in grape juice and wine, performed by ESI-MS, LC/ESI-MS, and MALDI/MS, has been proposed for differentiation of varieties. In fact, chitinases and thaumatin-like proteins persist through the vinification process and cause hazes and sediments in bottled wines. An additional instrument, potentially suitable for the grape varieties differentiation, has been developed by MALDI/MS for the grape seed protein analysis. The hydrosoluble protein profiles of seeds extract from three different Vitis vinifera grape (red and white) varieties were analyzed and compared. In order to evaluate the environmental conditions and harvest effects, the seed protein profiles of one grape variety from different locations and harvests were studied.     

Targeted identification of phosphorylated peptides by off-line HPLC-MALDI-MS/MS using LC retention time prediction

Protein phosphorylation is a type of posttranslational modification which plays an important role in cell regulation and signal transduction. Because of its biological relevance, a considerable amount of interest has been paid to the development of efficient techniques for phosphopeptide analysis. Although advances in MS control have enabled the high-throughput discovery of proteins from limited amounts of sample, automated selection of MS/MS precursor ions based on intensity alone can significantly hamper the detection of low-abundance phosphopeptides. On the basis of the observation that the introduction of a phosphate moiety does not dramatically change peptide retention time in reverse-phase chromatography, phosphopeptide specific MS/MS fragmentation attempts based on LC retention time and m/z were evaluated using a standard protein mixture, then using in vitro phosphorylated myelin basic protein. Results indicated that the majority (98%) of phosphopeptides identified eluted within a +/- 4-min window of the predicted LC elution time. While studies presented here are primarily proof of concept in nature, data suggest that the use of LC retention time prediction could be a valuable constraint for the identification of phosphopeptides within a set of off-line LC deposited sample spots. It is expected that the development of these methods will not only permit the targeted identification of protein phosphorylation sites but also allow the in-depth analysis of the dynamic events linked to the posttranslational modification.     

Label-free quantification of peptides in solution by disposable patterned hydrophilic chip based MALDI imaging

Quantification of a mixture of peptides in solution was achieved by disposable patterned hydrophilic chip based matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric imaging(MALDI MSI).Compared with other quantitative methods for peptides in solution, this method is label-free and does not require separation of the multiple components of the solution before analysis. Uniform hydrophilic spots and high mass accuracy measurements provided confident identification and quantitative analysis of imaged compounds. The linear correlation between concentration and grayscale of image in the range of 5 fmol/μ L to 1 pmol/μ L was obtained for all four peptides. Good sensitivity and excellent reproducibility were also achieved. The method expands the application of MALDI MSI from tissues to solutions.