Synthesis and analysis of phosphorylated nonapeptide adducts by LC/Q-TOF MS

A new method for the synthesis of organophosphorylated adducts of the nonapeptide FGESAGAAS is presented. The adducts were obtained by using sarin (GB) or soman (GD) as the organophosphorylating reagents and cesium carbonate as the acid scavenger. Greater than 50% of the peptide was modified on serine 4. MS/MS spectra acquired on an Agilent 6520 quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometer demonstrated that serine 4, but not serine 9 in the nonapeptide, was modified. The adducts included the characteristic isopropyl group of sarin and the pinacolyl group of soman, indicating that aging had not occurred. It was concluded that the new synthetic method yielded sarin and soman-modified peptides that could be used as references when analyzing human exposure to these nerve agents.     

Selective analysis of phosphopeptides within a protein mixture by chemical modification, reversible biotinylation and mass spectrometry

A new method combining chemical modification and affinity purification is described for the characterization of serine and threonine phosphopeptides in proteins. The method is based on the conversion of phosphoserine and phosphothreonine residues to S-(2-mercaptoethyl)cysteinyl or beta-methyl-S-(2-mercaptoethyl)cysteinyl residues by beta-elimination/1,2-ethanedithiol addition, followed by reversible biotinylation of the modified proteins. After trypsin digestion, the biotinylated peptides were affinity-isolated and enriched, and subsequently subjected to structural characterization by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Database searching allowed for automated identification of modified residues that were originally phosphorylated. The applicability of the method is demonstrated by the identification of all known phosphorylation sites in a mixture of alpha-casein, beta-casein, and ovalbumin. The technique has potential for adaptations to proteome-wide analysis of protein phosphorylation.     

Detection of Serine Octamer by Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry in Resultant Mixture of Aspartic Acid Exposed to Sunshine Under Natural Conditions

Serine,one of the nonessential amino acids,is of principal interest because of its capability to form magic-number ionic clusters,which provide a remarkable preference for homochirality.With L-aspartic acid as the precursor,this study provides experimental evidence for serine formation in weak acidified aqueous solutions in the presence of iron,with exposure to sunlight,which simulates the natural conditions of the prebiotic aqueous environment.The resultant mixture is directly analyzed via desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry(DESI-MS),without any sample preseparation.The serine monomer is successfully detected as protonated molecules,giving a peak at m/z 106,which is confirmed by the MS/MS fragments.Protonated serine octamer(m/z 841)is also observed with significant abundance in the MS spectra and is confirmed by the MS/MS data,which shows the formation of the serine octamer by a synthesized serine in the resultant mixture.It is also found that the serine octamer yielded equivalent abundance in the DESI mass spectra in a wide pH range(pH=1-5),and that existence of ferrous salt and sunshine are essential for the conversion of aspartic acid to serine in the acidic water solution.     

Chiral enrichment of serine via formation,dissociation, and soft-landing of octameric cluster ions

Chiral enrichment of serine is achieved in experiments that involve formation of serine octamers starting from non-racemic serine solutions. Serine octamers were generated by means of electrospray and sonic spray ionization of aqueous solutions of d(3)-L-serine (108 Da) and D-serine (105 Da) having different molar ratios of enantiomers. A cyclic process involving the formation of chirally-enriched octameric cluster ions and their dissociation, viz. Ser(1) --> Ser(8) --> Ser(1), allows serine monomers to be regenerated with increased enantiomeric excess as shown in two types of experiments: (1) Chiral enrichment in serine was observed in MS/MS/MS experiments in a quadrupole ion trap in which the entire distribution of serine octamers formed from non-racemic solutions was isolated, collisionally activated, and fragmented. Monomeric serine was regenerated with increased enantiomeric excess upon dissociation of octamers when compared with the enantiomeric composition of the original solution. (2) Chiral enrichment was observed in the products of soft-landing of mass-selected protonated serine octamers. These ions were generated by means of electrospray or sonic spray ionization, mass selected, and collected on a gold surface using ion soft-landing. Chiral enrichment of the soft-landed serine was established by redissolving the recovered material and comparing the intensities of protonated molecular ions of d(3)-L-serine and D-serine after APCI-MS analysis. Both of these experiments showed comparable results, suggesting that formation of serine octamers depends only on the enantiomeric composition of the serine solution and that the magnitude of the chiral preference is intrinsic to octamers formed from solutions of given chiral composition.     

Europium-Labeled Activity-Based Probe through Click Chemistry: Absolute Serine Protease Quantification Using (153) Eu Isotope Dilution ICP/MS

Click and analyze: The titled probe was synthesized by conjugating a sulfonyl fluoride and azido unit using click chemistry to give SF-Eu, which can react specifically with serine (Ser) in the active site of serine protease (SP). Combination of the method with (153) Eu-isotope dilution ICP/MS enables absolute protein quantification of active SPs in biological samples using only one (153) Eu(NO(3) )(3) isotopic standard.     

Leaving group and gas phase neighboring group effects in the side chain losses from protonated serine and its derivatives

The gas phase fragmentation reactions of protonated serine and its YNHCH(CH₂X)CO₂H derivatives, β-chloroalanine, S-methyl cysteine, O-methyl serine, and O-phosphoserine, as well as the corresponding N-acetyl model peptides have been examined via electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). In particular, the competition between losses from the side chain and the combined loss of H₂O and CO from the C-terminal carboxyl group of the amino acids or H₂O or CH₂CO from the N-acetyl model peptides are compared. In this manner the effect of the leaving group (Y = H or CH₃CO, vary X) or of the neighboring group can be examined. It was found that the amount of HX lost from the side chain increases with the proton affinity of X [OP(O)(OH)₂ > OCH₃ ≈ OH > Cl]. The ion due to the side chain loss of H₂O from the model peptide N-acetyl serine is more abundant than that from protonated serine, suggesting that the N-acetyl group is a better neighboring group than the amino group. Ab initio calculations at the MP2(FC)/6-31G*//HF/6-31G* level of theory suggest that this effect is due to the transition state barrier for water loss from protonated N-acetyl serine being lower than that for protonated serine. The mechanism for side chain loss has been examined using MS³ tandem mass spectrometry, independent synthesis of proposed product ion structures combined with MS/MS, and hydrogen/deuterium exchange. Neighboring group rather than cis 1,2 elimination processes dominate in all cases. In particular, the loss of H₃PO₄ from O-phosphoserine and N-acetyl O-phosphoserine is shown to yield a 3-membered aziridine ring and 5-membered oxazoline ring, respectively, and not the dehydroalanine moiety. This is in contrast to results presented by DeGnore and Qin (J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 1998, 9, 1175–1188) for the loss of H₃PO₄ from larger peptides, where dehydroalanine was observed. Alternate mechanisms to cis 1,2 elimination, for the formation of dehydroalanine in larger phosphoserine or phosphothreonine containing peptides, are proposed.     

Development and application of packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography/pneumatically assisted electrospray mass spectrometry

A pneumatically assisted electrospray liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) interface has been modified for use with packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography (pcSFC). The modifications include the addition of a concentric sheath-flow liquid to the spray device. This allowed the addition of modifiers at the sprayer tip that promote ionization of neutral, pcSFC-separated components. Post-column chromatographic fidelity was preserved using a novel pressure-regulation scheme. Post-column pressure regulation was accomplished by adding a “pressure-regulating fluid” (supplied under pressure control) to the effluent just ahead of the sprayer. The modified interface has been used to characterize a variety of mixtures including emollients, modified polysiloxanes, and pharmaceutical agents. The spectra produced by using this pcSFC/MS interface are similar to electrospray LC/MS spectra.     

直接进样电喷雾串联质谱法测定草鱼肌肉组织中磷脂

建立了直接进样电喷雾串联质谱测定草鱼肌肉组织中磷脂的方法.以Bligh Dyer法提取总脂质,采用流动注射泵直接进样的方式将样品导人电喷雾离子源,利用串联三重四级杆质谱的母离子扫描和中性丢失扫描功能,通过扫描磷脂的特征性子离子或中性质量丢失实现对磷脂酰胆碱、磷脂酰乙醇胺、磷脂酰肌醇、磷脂酰丝氨酸、磷脂酰甘油和磷脂酸六类磷脂的源内分离和鉴定.结果显示,在-定的浓度范围内,磷脂的浓度与磷脂直接进样电喷雾电离后形成准分子离子的响应值呈现良好的线性关系,回收率(67.1％～96.6％)和精密度可以满足生物样品分析的要求.采用本方法测定了草鱼肌肉组织中磷脂酰胆碱、磷脂酰乙醇胺、磷脂酰肌醇和磷脂酰丝氨酸4类磷脂的分子种及含量.本方法前处理简单,定性和定量分析快速准确,可以应用于其它生物样本脂质组学中磷脂的分析.     

GenoMass software: a tool based on electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry for characterization and sequencing of oligonucleotide adducts

The analysis of DNA adducts is of importance in understanding DNA damage, and in the last few years mass spectrometry (MS) has emerged as the most comprehensive and versatile tool for routine characterization of modified oligonucleotides. The structural analysis of modified oligonucleotides, although routinely analyzed using mass spectrometry, is followed by a large amount of data, and a significant challenge is to locate the exact position of the adduct by computational spectral interpretation, which still is a bottleneck. In this report, we present an additional feature of the in‐house developed GenoMass software, which determines the exact location of an adduct in modified oligonucleotides by connecting tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to a combinatorial isomer library generated in silico for nucleic acids. The performance of this MS/MS approach using GenoMass software was evaluated by MS/MS data interpretation for an unadducted and its corresponding N‐acetylaminofluorene (AAF) adducted 17‐mer (5'OH‐CCT ACC CCT TCC TTG TA‐3′OH) oligonucleotide. Further computational screening of this AAF adducted 17‐mer oligonucleotide (5′OH‐CCT ACC CCT TCC TTG TA‐3′OH) from a complex oligonucleotide mixture was performed using GenoMass. Finally, GenoMass was also used to identify the positional isomers of the AAF adducted 15‐mer oligonucleotide (5′OH‐ATGAACCGGAGGCCC‐3′OH). GenoMass is a simple, fast, data interpretation software that uses an in silico constructed library to relate the MS/MS sequencing approach to identify the exact location of adduct on oligonucleotides. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimization of a GC‐MS/MS Method for the Analysis of PCDDs and PCDFs in Human and Fish Tissue

This paper outlines the possibilities of selectivity and sensitivity enhancement in measuring PCDD/F congeners using an ion trap GC‐MS/MS. The pressure of the collision gas and the collision energy were optimized. The modified GC‐MS/MS method was applied to the determination of PCDDs and PCDFs in human and fish tissues. Limits of quantification were about 1 pg/g of fat for all seventeen 2378 PCDD/Fs tested (starting amount of fat, 2 g).     

Analysis of protein phosphorylation by mass spectrometry

Phosphorylation is one of the most frequently occurring post-translational modifications in proteins. In eukaryotic cells, protein phosphorylation on serine, threonine and tyrosine residues plays a crucial role as a modulator of protein function. A comprehensive analysis of protein phosphorylation involves the identification of the phosphoproteins, the exact localization of the residues that are phosphorylated and the quantitation of phosphorylation. In this short review we will summarize and discuss the methodologies currently available for the analysis and full characterization of phosphoproteins with special attention at mass spectrometry-based techniques. In particular, we will discuss affinity-based purification of phosphopeptides coupled to MALDI-TOF analysis, their detection using mass mapping and precursor ion scan, identification of modified sites by MS/MS and quantitation analysis     

Tandem mass spectrometry of multiply phosphorylated forms of a 'histidine-tag' derived from a recombinant protein kinase expressed in bacteria

When a histidine-tagged form of the protein kinase Aurora-2 was expressed in Escherichia coli, the purified product carried four to nine phosphate groups, although many fewer were expected. The amino-terminal tag had the sequence GSSHHHHHHSSGLVPRGSHMK-. Tryptic digestion of the product followed by analysis by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) showed that phosphorylation could occur on the five serine residues of the tag. Mono-, bis-, tris-, tetra- and pentaphosphorylated forms of the tag were detected, and their behavior in MS/MS was studied using a quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The MS/MS spectra were dominated by the products of neutral loss events (in 98 Da increments, each equivalent to loss of H3PO4), but sufficient b- and y-type sequence ions were detected to allow the locations of the phosphates to be specified in some cases. The assignment of phosphorylation sites for incompletely phosphorylated forms of the tag peptide was challenging, but it appeared that Ser-10 and Ser-11 of the tag were more likely to be phosphorylated than Ser-2 and Ser-3.     

Detection and identification of carcinogen-peptide adducts by nanoelectrospray tandem mass spectrometry

Nanoelectrospray (nanoES) tandem mass spectrometry was used to examine covalently modified peptides in crude enzymatic digests of human serum albumin (HSA) that had been exposed to either benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide (B[a]PDE, 1), chrysene diol epoxide (CDE, 2), 5-methylchrysene diol epoxide (5MeCDE, 3), or benzo[g]chrysene diol epoxide (B[g]CDE, 4). The low flow rates of nanoES (～20 nL/min) allowed several MS/MS experiments to be optimized and performed on a single sample with very little sample consumption (～30 min analysis time/µL sample). Initially, nanoES was compared with conventional LC/MS/MS analysis of carcinogen-peptide adducts. For example, nanoES analysis of an unseparated digest of B[a]PDE-treated serum albumin revealed the same peptides (RRHPY and RRHPY-FYAPE) that were previously shown, by LC/MS/MS, to be adducted with B[a]PDE. In addition, nanoES could detect unstable peptide adducts that might not otherwise have been directly observable. Finally, nanoES was shown to be an effective way to screen mixtures of modified and unmodified peptides for which no chromatographic information is available.     

N-terminal H3/D3-acetylation for improved high-throughput peptide sequencing by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry with a time-of-flight/time-of-flight analyzer

A novel method for peptide sequencing by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry with a time-of-flight/time-of-flight analyzer (MALDI-TOF/TOF) is presented. A stable isotope label introduced in the peptide N-terminus by derivatization, using a 1:1 mixture of acetic anhydride and deuterated acetic anhydride, allows for easy and unambiguous identification of ions belonging either to the N- or the C-terminal ion series in the product ion spectrum, making sequence assignment significantly simplified. The good performance of this technique was shown by successful sequencing of the contents of several peptide maps. A similar approach was recently applied to nanoelectrospray ionization (nanoESI) and nano-liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The MALDI-TOF/TOF technique allows for fast, direct sequencing of modified peptides in proteomics samples, and is complementary to the nanoESI and nanoLC/MS/MS approaches.     

Identification of phosphorylated butyrylcholinesterase in human plasma using immunoaffinity purification and mass spectrometry

Paraoxon (diethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate) is an active metabolite of the common insecticide parathion and is acutely toxic due to the inhibition of cholinesterase (ChE) activity in the nervous systems. The inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity by paraoxon is due to the formation of phosphorylated BChE adduct, and the detection of the phosphorylated BChE adduct in human plasma can serve as an exposure biomarker of organophosphate pesticides and nerve agents. In this study, we developed an immunoaffinity purification and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) strategy for identifying phosphorylated BChE in human plasma treated by paraoxon. BChE was captured by biotinylated anti-BChE polyclonal antibodies conjugated to streptavidin magnetic beads. Western blot analysis showed that the antibody was effective to recognize both native and modified BChE with high specificity. Using a purified BChE protein, we initially identified the exact phosphorylation site on the serine residue (S198) with a 108 Da modification by both MS/MS and accurately measured parent ion masses and quantified the extent of phosphorylation on S198 following paraoxon treatment to be >99.9%. Then, the phosphorylated BChE peptide in paraoxon-treated human plasma following immunoaffinity purification was successfully identified based on the accurate measured mass and retention time information initially obtained from the purified BChE protein. Thus, immunoaffinity purification combined with LC–MS represents a viable approach for the detection and quantification of phosphorylated BChE as an exposure biomarker of organophosphates and nerve agents.     

Ligand Exchange Between Penta-Coordinated Phosphoryl Serine and Histidine Compounds

With the assistance of HPLC-ESI-MS/MS, the self-assembly products of serine and histidine penta-coordinated phosphorus compound were separated and identified. The expectative product was seryl-histidine dipeptide, but it was found that there was almost equimolar amount of histidyl-histidine dipeptide as well as seryl-histidine dipeptide. The mechanism was speculated that there was iigand exchange between penta-coordinated phosphoryl serine and histidine in the reaction process. As a result,two types of dipeptide were produced.     

Modification of a packed column gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer

A packed-column gas-chromatograph/mass-spectrometer (GC/MS), Hewlett-Packard 5982, was modified to accommodate fused silica capillary columns. The original GC/MS interface and chemical-ionization sample-line in the ion-source were changed to allow the end of a fused silica capillary column to enter the ion-chamber directly. For chemical-ionization operation, the reagent gas was brought into the MS through the direct-insertion probe port. The calibration compound was introduced through the electron-impact sample-inlet, which simplified the operation. The modified system yields higher sensitivity and more efficient separation, as well as simpler operation, without sacrificing any original instrument functions.     

Facile synthesis of unusual glycosyl carbamates and amino acid glycosides from propargyl 1,2-orthoesters as glycosyl donors

Propargyl 1,2-O-orthoesters are exploited for the synthesis of 1,2-trans O-glycosides of protected amino acids. N-Fmoc- and N-Cbz protected serine/threonine - benzyl/methyl esters reacted well with glucosyl-, galactosyl-, mannosyl- and lactosyl- derived propargyl 1,2-orthoesters affording respective 1,2-trans glycosides in good yields under AuBr(3)/4 ? MS Powder/CH(2)Cl(2)/rt. t-Boc serine derivative gave serine 1,2-orthoester and glycosyl carbamate. Optimized conditions enabled preparation of new glycosyl carbamates from N-Boc protected amines in a single step using gold catalysts and propargyl 1,2-orthoesters in excellent yields.