Differentiating aspartic acid isomers and epimers with charge transfer dissociation mass spectrometry (CTD-MS).

The ability to understand the function of a protein often relies on knowledge about its detailed structure. Sometimes, seemingly insignificant changes in the primary structure of a protein, like an amino acid substitution, can completely disrupt a protein's function. Long-lived proteins (LLPs), which can be found in critical areas of the human body, like the brain and eye, are especially susceptible to primary sequence alterations in the form of isomerization and epimerization. Because long-lived proteins do not have the corrective regeneration capabilities of most other proteins, points of isomerism and epimerization that accumulate within the proteins can severely hamper their functions and can lead to serious diseases like Alzheimer's disease, cancer and cataracts. Whereas tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in the form of collision-induced dissociation (CID) generally excels at peptide characterization, MS/MS often struggles to pinpoint modifications within LLPs, especially when the differences are only isomeric or epimeric in nature. One of the most prevalent and difficult-to-identify modifications is that of aspartic acid between its four isomeric forms: L-Asp, L-isoAsp, D-Asp, and D-isoAsp. In this study, peptides containing isomers of Asp were analyzed by charge transfer dissociation (CTD) mass spectrometry to identify spectral features that could discriminate between the different isomers. For the four isomers of Asp in three model peptides, CTD produced diagnostic ions of the form cn+57 on the N-terminal side of iso-Asp residues, but not on the N-terminal side of Asp residues. Using CTD, the L- and D forms of Asp and isoAsp could also be differentiated based on the relative abundance of y- and z ions on the C-terminal side of Asp residues. Differentiation was accomplished through a chiral discrimination factor, R, which compares an ion ratio in a spectrum of one epimer or isomer to the same ion ratio in the spectrum of a different epimer or isomer. The R values obtained using CTD are as robust and statistically significant as other fragmentation techniques, like radical directed dissociation (RDD). In summary, the extent of backbone and side-chain fragments produced by CTD enabled the differentiation of isomers and epimers of Asp in a variety of peptides.

Differentiation of leucine and isoleucine residues in peptides using charge transfer dissociation mass spectrometry (CTD-MS).

RATIONALE: The function of a protein or the binding affinity of an antibody can be substantially altered by the replacement of leucine (Leu) with isoleucine (Ile), and vice versa, so the ability to identify the correct isomer using mass spectrometry can help resolve important biological questions. Tandem mass spectrometry approaches for Leu/Ile (Xle) discrimination have been developed, but they all have certain limitations. METHODS: Four model peptides and two wild-type peptide sequences containing either Leu or Ile residues were subjected to charge transfer dissociation (CTD) mass spectrometry on a modified three-dimensional ion trap. The peptides were analyzed in both the 1+ and 2+ charge states, and the results were compared to conventional collision-induced dissociation spectra of the same peptides obtained using the same instrument. RESULTS: CTD resulted in 100% sequence coverage for each of the studied peptides and provided a variety of side-chain cleavages, including d, w and v ions. Using CTD, reliable d and w ions of Xle residues were observed more than 80% of the time. When present, d ions are typically greater than 10% of the abundance of the corresponding a ions from which they derive, and w ions are typically more abundant than the z ions from which they derive. CONCLUSIONS: CTD has the benefit of being applicable to both 1+ and 2+ precursor ions, and the overall performance is comparable to that of other high-energy activation techniques like hot electron capture dissociation and UV photodissociation. CTD does not require chemical modifications of the precursor peptides, nor does it require additional levels of isolation and fragmentation.

Top-Down Charge Transfer Dissociation (CTD) of Gas-Phase Insulin: Evidence of a One-Step, Two-Electron Oxidation Mechanism.

Top-down analyses of protonated insulin cations of charge states of 4+, 5+, or 6+ were performed by exposing the isolated precursor ions to a beam of helium cations with kinetic energy of more than 6 keV, in a technique termed charge transfer dissociation (CTD). The ~100 ms charge transfer reaction resulted in approximately 20% conversion efficiency to other intact charge exchange products (CTnoD), and a range of low abundance fragment ions. To increase backbone and sulfide cleavages, and to provide better structural information than straightforward MS2 CTD, the CTnoD oxidized products were isolated and subjected to collisional activation at the MS3 level. The MS3 CTD/CID reaction effectively broke the disulfide linkages, separated the two chains, and yielded more structurally informative fragment ions within the inter-chain cyclic region. CTD also provided doubly oxidized intact product ions at the MS2 level, and resonance ejection of the singly oxidized product ion revealed that the doubly oxidized product originates directly from the isolated precursor ion and not from consecutive CTD reactions of a singly oxidized intermediate. MS4 experiments were employed to help identify potential radical cations and diradical cations, but the results were negative or inconclusive. Nonetheless, the two-electron oxidation process is a demonstration of the very large potential energy (>20 eV) available through CTD, and is a notable capability for a 3D ion trap platform. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Charge transfer dissociation of phosphocholines: gas-phase ion/ion reactions between helium cations and phospholipid cations.

Phospholipid cations formed by electrospray ionization were subjected to excitation and fragmentation by a beam of 6 keV helium cations in a process termed charge transfer dissociation (CTD). The resulting fragmentation pattern in CTD is different from that of conventional collision-induced dissociation, but analogous to that of metastable atom-activated dissociation and electron-induced dissociation. Like collision-induced dissociation, CTD yields product ions indicative of acyl chain lengths and degrees of unsaturation in the fatty acyl moieties but also provides additional structural diagnostic information, such as double bond position. Although CTD has not been tested on a larger lipid sample pool, the extent of structural information obtained demonstrates that CTD is a useful tool for lipid structure characterization, and a potentially useful tool in future lipidomics workflows. CTD is relatively unique in that it can produce a relatively strong series of 2+ product ions with enhanced abundance at the double bond position. The generally low signal-to-noise ratios and spectral complexity of CTD make it less appealing than OzID or other radical-induced methods for the lipids studies here, but improvements in CTD efficiency could make CTD more appealing in the future. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Field Analysis of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Soil Using Solid-Phase Microextraction (SPME) and a Portable Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry System.

An expedited field analysis method was developed for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil matrices using a portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) instrument. Soil samples of approximately 0.5 g were measured with a portable scale and PCBs were extracted by headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with a 100 µm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber. Two milliliters of 0.2 M potassium permanganate and 0.5 mL of 6 M sulfuric acid solution were added to the soil matrices to facilitate the extraction of PCBs. The extraction was performed for 30 min at 100 ℃ in a portable heating block that was powered by a portable generator. The portable GC-MS instrument took less than 6 min per analysis and ran off an internal battery and helium cylinder. Six commercial PCB mixtures, Aroclor 1016, 1221, 1232, 1242, 1248, 1254, and 1260, could be classified based on the GC chromatograms and mass spectra. The detection limit of this method for Aroclor 1260 in soil matrices is approximately 10 ppm, which is sufficient for guiding remediation efforts in contaminated sites. This method was applicable to the on-site analysis of PCBs with a total analysis time of 37 min per sample. However, the total analysis time could be improved to less than 7 min per sample by conducting the rate-limiting extraction step for different samples in parallel.

Charge transfer dissociation (CTD) mass spectrometry of peptide cations using kiloelectronvolt helium cations.

A kiloelectronvolt beam of helium ions is used to ionize and fragment precursor peptide ions starting in the 1+ charge state. The electron affinity of helium cations (24.6 eV) exceeds the ionization potential of protonated peptides and can therefore be used to abstract an electron from--or charge exchange with--the isolated precursor ions. Kiloelectronvolt energies are used, (1) to overcome the Coulombic repulsion barrier between the cationic reactants, (2) to overcome ion-defocussing effects in the ion trap, and (3) to provide additional activation energy. Charge transfer dissociation (CTD) of the [M+H](+) precursor of Substance P gives product ions such as [M+H](2+•) and a dominant series of a ions in both the 1+ and 2+ charge states. These observations, along with the less-abundant a + 1 ions, are consistent with ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) results of others and indicate that C-C(α) cleavages are possible through charge exchange with helium ions. Although the efficiencies and timescale of CTD are not yet suitable for on-line chromatography, this new approach to ion activation provides an additional potential tool for the interrogation of gas phase ions.

Determination of Aroclor 1260 in soil samples by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and solid-phase microextraction.

A novel fast screening method was developed for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls that are constituents of the commercial mixture, Aroclor 1260, in soil matrices by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry combined with solid-phase microextraction. Nonequilibrium headspace solid-phase microextraction with a 100 µm polydimethylsiloxane fiber was used to extract polychlorinated biphenyls from 0.5 g of soil matrix. The use of 2 mL of saturated potassium dichromate in 6 M sulfuric acid solution improved the reproducibility of the extractions and the mass transfer of the polychlorinated biphenyls from the soil matrix to the microextraction fiber via the headspace. The extraction time was 30 min at 100°C. The percent recoveries, which were evaluated using an Aroclor 1260 standard and liquid injection, were within the range of 54.9-65.7%. Two-way extracted ion chromatogram data were used to construct calibration curves. The relative error was <±15% and the relative standard deviation was <15%, which are respective measures of the accuracy and precision. The method was validated with certified soil samples and the predicted concentrations for Aroclor 1260 agreed with the certified values. The method was demonstrated to be linear from 10 to 1000 ng/g for Aroclor 1260 in dry soil.

Analysis of household ignitable liquids and their post-combustion weathered residues using compound-specific gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

The continuing rise in home and vehicular arson cases involving the use of ignitable liquids continues to be an area of concern for criminal and civil investigators. In this study, the compound-specific δ(13)C values of various components of four flammable household chemicals were measured using a single quadrupole mass spectrometer and an isotope ratio mass spectrometer as simultaneous detectors for a gas chromatograph. Whereas compound-specific carbon isotope ratios were able to discriminate between different sources of neat (pre-combustion) ignitable liquids, analyses of the post-combustion residues were problematic. Weathering caused by combustion resulted in a significant increase in the (13)C content of specific peaks relative to the neat liquids (i.e. less negative delta values) such that the isotopic comparison of pre- and post-combustion residues resulted in fractionation ranging from 0 to +10‰. Because of the current lack of understanding of isotopic fractionation during combustion, and because of problems encountered with co-elution in the more complex samples, compound-specific IRMS does not appear to be suitable for fire debris analysis. The comparison of non-combusted or non-weathered ignitable liquids is much more reliable, especially for relatively simple mixtures, and is best suited for exclusionary purposes until such time as a comprehensive database of samples is developed. Without a measure of the population variance, one cannot presently predict the false positive identification rate for the comparison of two ignitable liquids; i.e. the probability that two random ignitable liquid samples have indistinguishable isotope ratios.

δ13C analysis of amino acids in human hair using trimethylsilyl derivatives and gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

RATIONALE: To provide a simple one-step derivatization procedure for the analysis of a wide variety of amino acids in human hair by gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS). N,O-Bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) derivatization is already widely used outside the IRMS community, is applicable to a variety of functional groups, and provides products that are common entries in mass spectral databases, thus simplifying compound identification. METHODS: Method optimization and validation were performed on a mixture of ten standard amino acids found abundantly in human hair. The method was then applied to the analysis of scalp hair from six human subjects. The hair was washed, hydrolyzed with 6 M HCl, derivatized using BSTFA in acetonitrile and analyzed using gas chromatography (GC) with concurrent quadrupole and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) detectors. RESULTS: The reproducibility for the δ(13)C measurements, including the derivatization procedure and GC/C/IRMS analysis, on a day-to-day comparison was between 0.19‰ and 0.35‰ (SD, N = 12), with an average standard deviation of 0.26‰. Because trimethylsilylation adds 3N carbon atoms (where N = # reactive protons) to each amino acid, the δ(13)C values for amino acid derivatives were corrected using a mass balance correction and the measured kinetic isotope effect (KIE). The KIE values ranged from 0.984 to 1.020. CONCLUSIONS: The procedure gave consistent δ(13)C values with precision similar to other derivatization methods for the range of sample sizes studied: 50-1000 µg of each amino acid. The method gave δ(13)C values consistent with the known literature values when applied to the analysis of amino acids in human hair.

Characterization of tyrosine nitration and cysteine nitrosylation modifications by metastable atom-activation dissociation mass spectrometry.

The fragmentation behavior of nitrated and S-nitrosylated peptides were studied using collision induced dissociation (CID) and metastable atom-activated dissociation mass spectrometry (MAD-MS). Various charge states, such as 1+, 2+, 3+, 2-, of modified and unmodified peptides were exposed to a beam of high kinetic energy helium (He) metastable atoms resulting in extensive backbone fragmentation with significant retention of the post-translation modifications (PTMs). Whereas the high electron affinity of the nitrotyrosine moiety quenches radical chemistry and fragmentation in electron capture dissociation (ECD) and electron transfer dissociation (ETD), MAD does produce numerous backbone cleavages in the vicinity of the modification. Fragment ions of nitrosylated cysteine modifications typically exhibit more abundant neutral losses than nitrated tyrosine modifications because of the extremely labile nature of the nitrosylated cysteine residues. However, compared with CID, MAD produced between 66% and 86% more fragment ions, which preserved the labile -NO modification. MAD was also able to differentiate I/L residues in the modified peptides. MAD is able to induce radical ion chemistry even in the presence of strong radical traps and therefore offers unique advantages to ECD, ETD, and CID for determination of PTMs such as nitrated and S-nitrosylated peptides.

Classification of jet fuels by fuzzy rule-building expert systems applied to three-way data by fast gas chromatography--fast scanning quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry.

A fast method that can be used to classify unknown jet fuel types or detect possible property changes in jet fuel physical properties is of paramount interest to national defense and the airline industries. While fast gas chromatography (GC) has been used with conventional mass spectrometry (MS) to study jet fuels, fast GC was combined with fast scanning MS and used to classify jet fuels into lot numbers or origin for the first time by using fuzzy rule-building expert system (FuRES) classifiers. In the process of building classifiers, the data were pretreated with and without wavelet transformation and evaluated with respect to performance. Principal component transformation was used to compress the two-way data images prior to classification. Jet fuel samples were successfully classified with 99.8 ± 0.5% accuracy for both with and without wavelet compression. Ten bootstrapped Latin partitions were used to validate the generalized prediction accuracy. Optimized partial least squares (o-PLS) regression results were used as positively biased references for comparing the FuRES prediction results. The prediction results for the jet fuel samples obtained with these two methods were compared statistically. The projected difference resolution (PDR) method was also used to evaluate the fast GC and fast MS data. Two batches of aliquots of ten new samples were prepared and run independently 4 days apart to evaluate the robustness of the method. The only change in classification parameters was the use of polynomial retention time alignment to correct for drift that occurred during the 4-day span of the two collections. FuRES achieved perfect classifications for four models of uncompressed three-way data. This fast GC/fast MS method furnishes characteristics of high speed, accuracy, and robustness. This mode of measurement may be useful as a monitoring tool to track changes in the chemical composition of fuels that may also lead to property changes.

Gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for biomarkers of alcohol abuse in human hair.

We present the development of a new, faster analytical method for the determination of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) in human hair to detect potential alcohol abuse. FAEEs have been established as metabolites of ethanol consumption in humans and are embedded in the hair follicles during hair growth. The developed method has a total analysis time-including washing, extraction, concentration, separation, and detection-of less than 1 hour. Commonly used extraction procedures in the literature for these biomarkers are typically 15 hours. Analysis is performed using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) with a GC separation time of less than 9 minutes. Using chemical ionization, mass spectrometric detection consists of selected reaction monitoring, which is widely considered to be one of the most selective and sensitive forms of mass spectrometric detection. Employing selected reaction monitoring helps to reduce interferences from the hair matrix, thereby making the method more selective for these biomarkers of interest. Limits of detection for each FAEE range from 0.002 to 0.030 ng/mg in hair. By using this faster extraction method, this research shows that this method could potentially be used to distinguish whether a person is a heavy drinker, moderate drinker, or nondrinker. The ability to rapidly analyze hair samples can be applied to a number of different areas, such as neonatal screening, parole violations, contributing factors in the cause of death, and any other application requiring the establishment of chronic versus acute alcohol abuse.

Dynamic collision-induced dissociation of peptides in a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer.

The fragmentation of natural peptides using dynamic collision-induced dissociation (DCID), a novel fragmentation method for quadrupole ion traps, is demonstrated. Using leucine enkephalin as a diagnostic molecule, the fragmentation efficiencies and energetics of DCID are compared with other methods of collisional activation in ion traps such as conventional on-resonance excitation and high-amplitude short-time excitation (HASTE). A typical fragmentation efficiency of approximately 20% is achieved for DCID, which is significantly lower than conventional CID (maximum near 80%). Tandem mass spectra of two other peptides, substance P and oxidized insulin alpha-chain, demonstrate that product ion spectra for DCID are comparable to conventional or HASTE CID. Because DCID achieves fragmentation during the standard mass acquisition scan, no extra time is necessary for on-resonance excitation or product ion collection, so analysis times are reduced by a minimum of 10-15% depending on the scanning conditions. DCID therefore offers more tandem mass spectra per second than conventional methods of collisional activation, which could be highly advantageous for bottom-up proteomics separations.

Fast gas chromatography of explosive compounds using a pulsed-discharge electron capture detector.

The detection of a mixture of nine explosive compounds, including nitrate esters, nitroaromatics, and a nitramine in less than 140 sec is described. The new method employs a commercially available pulsed-discharge electron capture detector (PDECD) coupled with a microbore capillary gas chromatography (GC) column in a standard GC oven to achieve on-column detection limits between 5 and 72 fg for the nine explosives studied. The PDECD has the benefit that it uses a pulsed plasma to generate the standing electron current instead of a radioactive source. The fast separation time limits on-column degradation of the thermally labile compounds and decreases the peak widths, which results in larger peak intensities and a concomitant improvement in detection limits. The combination of short analysis time and low detection limits make this method a potential candidate for screening large numbers of samples that have been prepared using techniques such as liquid-liquid extraction or solid-phase microextraction.