Capillary Electrophoresis-Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry for Quantitative Analysis of Glycans Labeled with Multiplex Carbonyl-Reactive Tandem Mass Tags

Recently developed carbonyl-reactive aminoxy tandem mass tag (aminoxyTMT) reagents enable multiplexed characterization and quantitative comparison of structurally complex glycans between different biological samples. Compared to some previously reported isotopic labeling strategies for glycans, the use of the aminoxyTMT method features a simple labeling procedure, excellent labeling efficiency, and reduced spectral complexity at the MS¹ level. Presence of the tertiary amine functionality in the reporter region of the aminoxyTMT labels leads to increased ionization efficiency of the labeled glycans thus improving electrospray ionization (ESI)-mass spectrometry (MS) detection sensitivity. The use of the labeling reagent also makes electrophoretic separation of the labeled neutral and acidic glycans feasible. In this work, we characterized the ESI and collision induced dissociation (CID) behavior of the aminoxyTMT-labeled neutral and sialylated glycans. For the high-mannose N-glycans and small sialylated oligosaccharides, CID fragmentation of [M + Na + H]²⁺ provides the most informative MS² spectra for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. For complex N-glycans, MS³ of the protonated Y_1(H) ion can be used for relative quantification without interference from the HexNAc fragments. Online capillary electrophoresis (CE)-ESI-MS/MS analyses of multiplexed aminoxyTMT-labeled human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and different types of N-glycans released from glycoprotein standards were demonstrated. Improved resolution and quantification accuracy of the labeled HMO isomers was achieved by coupling CE with traveling wave ion mobility (TWIM)-CID-MS/MS. N-Glycans released from human serum protein digests were labeled with six-plex aminoxyTMT and subjected to CE-ESI-MS/pseudo-MS³ analysis, which demonstrated the potential utility of this glycan relative quantification platform for more complex biological samples

Targeted MultiNotch MS³ Approach for Relative Quantification of N‑Glycans Using Multiplexed Carbonyl-Reactive Isobaric Tags

The recently developed and commercially available carbonyl-reactive tandem mass tags (aminoxyTMT) enable multiplexed quantification of glycans through comparison of reporter ion intensities. However, challenges still exist for collision activated dissociation (CAD) MS/MS based quantification of aminoxyTMT due to the relatively low reporter ion yield especially for glycans with labile structures. To circumvent this limitation, we utilized the unique structural features of N-glycan molecules, the common core sugar sequence (HexNAc)₂(Man)₃, and common <i>m</i>/<i>z</i> of Y_n ions generated from different types of precursors by MS/MS and designed a Y₁ ion triggered, targeted MultiNotch MS³ relative quantification approach based on aminoxyTMT labeling. This approach was implemented on a nanoHILIC-Tribrid quadrupole-ion trap-Orbitrap platform, which enables prescreening of aminoxyTMT labeled N-glycan precursor ions by Y₁ ion fragment ion mass in a higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD) MS/MS scan and coisolation and cofragmentation of multiple Y_n fragment ions that carry the isobaric tags from the inclusion list in the MS/MS/MS scan. Through systematical optimization and evaluation using N-glycans released from several glycoprotein standards and human serum proteins, we demonstrated that the Y₁ ion triggered, targeted MultiNotch MS³ approach offers improved accuracy, precision, and sensitivity for relative quantification compared to traditional data-dependent MS² and Y₁ ion MS³ quantification methods

Large-Scale and Targeted Quantitative Cross-Linking MS Using Isotope-Labeled Protein Interaction Reporter (PIR) Cross-Linkers

Quantitative measurement of chemically cross-linked proteins is crucial to reveal dynamic information about protein structures and protein–protein interactions and how these are differentially regulated during stress, aging, drug treatment, and most perturbations. Previously, we demonstrated how quantitative in vivo cross-linking (CL) with stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) enables both heritable and dynamic changes in cells to be visualized. In this work, we demonstrate the technical feasibility of proteome-scale quantitative in vivo CL–MS using isotope-labeled protein interaction reporter (PIR) cross-linkers and <i>E. coli</i> as a model system. This isotope-labeled cross-linkers approach, combined with Real-time Analysis of Cross-linked peptide Technology (ReACT) previously developed in our lab, enables the quantification of 941 nonredundant cross-linked peptide pairs from a total of 1213 fully identified peptide pairs in two biological replicate samples through comparison of MS¹ peak intensity of the light and heavy cross-linked peptide pairs. For targeted relative quantification of cross-linked peptide pairs, we further developed a PRM-based assay to accurately probe specific site interaction changes in a complex background. The methodology described in this work provides reliable tools for both large-scale and targeted quantitative CL–MS that is useful for any sample where SILAC labeling may not be practical

Quantitative Glycomic Analysis by Mass-Defect-Based Dimethyl Pyrimidinyl Ornithine (DiPyrO) Tags and High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry

We recently developed a novel amine-reactive mass-defect-based chemical tag, dimethyl pyrimidinyl ornithine (DiPyrO), for quantitative proteomic analysis at the MS¹ level. In this work, we further extend the application of the DiPyrO tag, which provides amine group reactivity, optical detection capability, and improved electrospray sensitivity, to quantify N-linked glycans enzymatically released from glycoproteins in the glycosylamine form. Duplex DiPyrO tags that differ in mass by 45.3 mDa were used to label the glycosylamine moieties of freshly released N-glycosylamines from glycoprotein standards and human serum proteins. We demonstrate that both MALDI-LTQ-Orbitrap and nano-HILIC LC/MS/MS Fusion Lumos Orbitrap platforms are capable of resolving the singly or multiply charged N-glycans labeled with mass-defect DiPyrO tags. Dynamic range of quantification, based on MS¹ peak intensities, was evaluated across 2 orders of magnitude. With optimized N-glycan release conditions, glycosylamine labeling conditions, and MS acquisition parameters, the N-glycan profiles and abundances in human serum proteins of cancer patients before and after chemotherapy were compared. Moreover, this study also opens a door for using well-developed amine-reactive tags for relative quantification of glycans, which could be widely applied

Quantification of BSA cross-linked peptide pairs with Skyline.

<p><b>A.</b> MS2 spectrum for the cross-linked peptide pair linking residues K235-K28 (ALK²³⁵AWSVAR_DTHK²⁸SEIAHR), obtained from a 500 ng injection of cross-linked BSA digest. <b>B.</b> Extracted ion chromatograms for the PRM transitions observed for the cross-linked peptide pair in A. <b>C.</b> Skyline generated bar plot illustrating the normalized peak areas for the cross-linked peptide pair linking K28-K235. Peak areas are shown for triplicate analyses of varying injection amounts (100, 200, 500, and 1000 ng cross-linked BSA digest). Bars are color coded to indicate the contribution of each individual transition to the total peak area and match the color scheme in panel B. </p

Cross-laboratory quantification of BSA-BDP cross-linked peptide pairs.

<p><b>A.</b> Average cross-linked peptide response curve comparing data collected in the Bruce Lab and CSHL for 30 cross-linked peptide pairs. <b>B.</b> Scatter plot illustrating the R² values for linear regression analysis of the data shown in A and B.</p

Experimental outline.

<p><b>A.</b> Biological samples are prepared for qXL-MS comparing two or more conditions. The samples are treated with chemical cross-linker either as (1) a mixed sample if SILAC labeling was used or (2) as separate samples if carrying out a label free experiment or using isotopically labeled cross-linkers. Following the cross-linking reaction proteins are extracted, enzymatically digested, and subjected to various strategies (i.e. strong cation exchange and affinity chromatography) for enrichment cross-linked peptide pairs. <b>B.</b> LC-MS analysis of samples enriched for cross-linked peptide pairs is carried out. This consists of reversed phase chromatographic separation by LC followed by analysis by MS. The mass spectrometer is operated in PRM mode where an inclusion list of <i>m/z</i> values for the precursor ions of interest is used to target specific cross-linked peptides. The PRM mass spectrometric analysis used here consists of three steps including isolation of precursor ions, fragmentation by collision with neutral gasses, and detection of mass to charge ratios of the resulting fragment ions. <b>C)</b> Resulting MS2 data are converted into transition lists and imported into Skyline for analysis.</p