Applications and advancements of FT-ICR-MS for interactome studies

Analytical Techniques for the Characterization and Quantification of Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are a fast-growing class of biopharmaceuticals. They are widely used in the identification and detection of cell makers, serum analytes, and pathogenic agents, and are remarkably used for the cure of autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, or malignancies. The successful application of therapeutic mAbs is based on their ability to precisely interact with their appropriate target sites. The precision of mAbs rely on the isolation techniques delivering pure, consistent, stable, and safe lots that can be used for analytical, diagnostic, or therapeutic applications. During the creation of a biologic, the key quality features of a particular mAb, such as structure, post-translational modifications, and activities at the biomolecular and cellular levels, must be characterized and profiled in great detail. This implies the requirement of powerful state of the art analytical techniques for quality control and characterization of mAbs. Until now, various analytical techniques have been developed to characterize and quantify the mAbs according to the regulatory guidelines. The present review summarizes the major techniques used for the analyses of mAbs which include chromatographic, electrophoretic, spectroscopic, and electrochemical methods in addition to the modifications in these methods for improving the quality of mAbs. This compilation of major analytical techniques will help students and researchers to have an overview of the methodologies employed by the biopharmaceutical industry for structural characterization of mAbs for eventual release of therapeutics in the drug market.

Food metabolomics: Latest hardware-developments for nontargeted food authenticity and food safety testing

The analytical requirements for food testing have increased significantly in recent years. On the one hand, because food fraud is becoming an ever-greater challenge worldwide, and on the other hand because food safety is often difficult to monitor due to the far-reaching trade chains. In addition, the expectations of consumers on the quality of food have increased, and they are demanding extensive information. Cutting-edge analytical methods are required to meet these demands. In this context, non-targeted metabolomics strategies using mass and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers (mass spectrometry [MS]) have proven to be very suitable. MS-based approaches are of particular importance as they provide a comparatively high analytical coverage of the metabolome. Accordingly, the efficiency to address even challenging issues is high. A variety of hardware developments, which are explained in this review, have contributed to these advances. In addition, the potential of future developments is highlighted, some of which are currently not yet commercially available or only used to a comparatively small extent but are expected to gain in importance in the coming years.

Application of frequency multiple FT-ICR-MS signal acquisition for improved proteome research

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) coupled with liquid chromatography (LC) is a powerful combination useful in many research areas due to the utility of high mass resolving power and mass measurement accuracy for studying highly complex samples. Ideally, every analyte in a complex sample can be subjected to accurate mass MS/MS analysis to aid in identification. FT-ICR MS can provide high mass resolving power and mass accuracy at the cost of long data acquisition periods, reducing the number of spectra that can be acquired per unit time. Frequency multiple signal acquisition has long been realized as an attractive method to obtain high mass resolving power and mass accuracy with shorter data acquisition periods. However, one of the limitations associated with frequency multiple signal acquisition is reduced signal intensity as compared to a traditional dipole detector. In this study, we demonstrated the use of a novel ICR cell to improve frequency multiple signal intensity and investigated the potential use of frequency multiple acquisition for proteome measurements. This novel ICR cell containing both dipole and frequency multiple detection electrodes was installed on a 7T FT-ICR MS coupled to an LC system. Tryptic digests of HeLa cell lysates were analyzed using dipole and frequency multiple detectors by holding either the mass resolving power or signal acquisition time constant. Compared to dipole detection, second frequency multiple detection yielded 36% or 45% more unique identified peptides from HeLa cell lysates at twice the scan rate or twice the mass resolving power, respectively. These results indicate that frequency multiple signal acquisition with either the same resolving power or the same signal acquisition duration as used with dipole signals can produce a significant increase in the number of peptides identified in complex proteome samples.