Interactions between sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles and peptides during matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) of proteolytic digests

Although sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) is routinely used as a denaturing agent for proteins, its presence is highly detrimental on the analysis of peptides and proteins by mass spectrometry. It has been found, however, that when SDS is present in concentrations near to or above its critical micelle concentration (CMC), improvements in the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) analysis of peptide mixtures or hydrophobic proteins are obtained. To elucidate possible explanations for such improvements, here we have undertaken a study examining the effect of SDS micelles on peptide mixtures. Fluorescently labeled peptides were used as probes to determine whether hydrophobic or hydrophilic peptides interact exclusively with SDS micelles. In addition, four globular proteins were digested with trypsin and then various amounts of SDS were added before MALDI mass spectrometry. To examine the role of mixture complexity on the mass spectral results, the tryptic digest of bovine serum albumin was also fractionated according to hydrophobicity before SDS treatment. Results from these experiments suggest that micelle-peptide interactions increase peptide-matrix cocrystallization irrespective of analyte hydrophobicity. As these studies were performed using the dried-droplet method of sample spotting, the presence of micelles is also hypothesized to reduce Marangoni effects during the crystallization process.