Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation collisions of bio-molecules

During this study the effect of electrostatic analysers on the time-of-flight of ions was studied theoretically, and it was shown that small energy spreads in the ion packet do not affect seriously the time-of-flight of an ion. The initial angle of an ion upon entering the electrostatic analyser does affect the time-of- flight of the ion. A C-shape configuration with two electrostatic analysers has been proposed as a solution eliminating time broadening due to spread in initial angle. An energy resolved time-of-flight mass (ER-TOF) spectrometer was constructed. Metastable fragmentation and collision-induced dissociation experiments were carried out with different molecular-mass proteins and 3- nitrobenzyl alcohol as matrix. It has been shown that in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation (MALDI) there is a substantial number of ions that decay after acceleration and prior to detection. The energy resolved time-of- flight spectra show that there is a peak broadening resulting from the lack of stability of the high-mass ions during their flight through a time-of-flight instrument. The effect of the electric field above the target on the kinetic energy of the ions when 3-nitrobenzyl alcohol was used as matrix has been studied, and the energy spreads explained as being predominately energy deficits arising from the combination of high electrostatic fields, the liquid nature of the matrix and the inherent characteristics of the desorption / ionisation process. Collision experiments with different molecular-mass proteins ranging from 34% Da to 18300 Da and different collision gases over a wide range of kinetic energies showed that there is a decrease in the analyte signal with respect to the matrix signal for specific collision gases and collision energies. The ions were collected with an off-axis post acceleration detector. The decrease in the analyte signal has been explained as loss of the charge possessed by the analyte ion through charge exchange with the collision gas

Account : chemical cross-linking. and mass spectrometry as structure determination tools

Chemical cross-linking is becoming a valuable tool for the high-order structure determination of proteins and protein complexes. Cross-linking methodology is able to provide low-resolution structures when at least something is known already about the proteins under investigation. The suitability of top-down and bottom-up methodologies is discussed and further potential applications of chemical cross-linking of proteins, as well as combinations with other techniques such as hydrogen/deuterium exchange and molecular modeling, are suggested

High-energy collision induced dissociation fragmentation pathways of peptides, probed using a multiturn tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometer "MULTUM-TOF/TOF"

A new multiturn tandem time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer "MULTUM-TOF/TOF" has been designed and constructed. It consists of a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization ion source, a multiturn TOF mass spectrometer, a collision cell, and a quadratic-field ion mirror. The multiturn TOF mass spectrometer can overcome the problem of precursor ion selection in TOF, due to insufficient time separation between two adjacent TOF peaks, by increasing the number of cycles. As a result, the total TOF increases with the increase in resolving power. The quadratic-field ion mirror allows temporal focusing for fragment ions with different kinetic energies. Product ion spectra from monoisotopically selected precursor ions of angiotensin I, substance P, and bradykinin have been obtained. The fragment ions observed are mainly the result of high-energy collision induced dissociation. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics

Monitoring conformational changes in protein complexes using chemical cross-linking and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry : the effect of calcium binding on the calmodulin-melittin complex

Calmodulin is an EF hand calcium binding protein. Its binding affinities to various protein/peptide targets often depend on the conformational changes induced by the binding of calcium. One such target is melittin, which binds tightly to calmodulin in the presence of calcium, and inhibits its function. Chemical cross-linking combined with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry has been employed to investigate the coordination of calmodulin and melittin in the complex at different concentrations of calcium. This methodology can be used to monitor structural changes in proteins induced by ligand binding and to study the effects these changes have on non-covalent interactions between proteins. Cross-linking results indicate that the binding place of the first melittin in the calcium-free calmodulin form is the same as in the calcium-loaded calmodulin/melittin complex

Theoretical investigation of the proton affinity and gas-phase basicity of neutral x,y-dihydroxybenzoic acid and its derivatives

Proton affinities (PA), gas-phase basicities (GB) and acidities (GA), which are some of the important physical properties of a matrix in matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry, have been calculated using density functional theory (DFT) for a number of dihydroxybenzoic (DHB) acid isomers and derivatives. The theoretical PA and gas-phase basicity (GB) values for the neutral x,y-DHB acids, ionic radicals, Na+ and K+ salts as well as oxygen- and hydrogen-bridged dimers of x,y-DHB have been calculated. Analysis of the computational data indicates that there are lower PA/GB values for the anionic dimers compared to the PA/GB values for the electrically neutral oxygen-bridged dimers. The PA/GB values for the neutral and radical cations are larger than the neutral monomers and the PA/GB values for the radical anions are slightly lower than the anionic class of isomers. The PA/GB values for the salts (x, y-DHB-Na/K+) are significantly higher (100-150 kJ mol(-1)) than the neutral x,y-DHB acids. The above theoretical results are in agreement with experimental values obtained by Fourier transorm ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry employing a thermokinetic method. Correlation of experimentally and theoretically predicted values suggests that this theoretical calculation method could be used to derive information on different matrices

Field ionization using densely spaced arrays of nickel-tipped carbon nanotubes

A field ionization source based on densely spaced, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been developed and evaluated. The CNTs contained nickel particles at their tips. This source would be suitable for analytical mass spectrometry. With a positive voltage on the dense CNT arrays, the strong electric field generated around the CNT tips has effected field ionization. The ionization of inert gases, including helium, and organic compounds, including acetone and methane, and the control and the transfer of the resulting ions have been achieved. These results represent a base for application of this new ion source in mass spectrometry