Design of a Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer as a Detector for Capillary Electrophoresis

Advances in glycosaminoglycan detection

BACKGROUND

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are negatively charged long linear (highly sulfated) polysaccharides consisting of repeating disaccharide units that are expressed on the surfaces of all nucleated cells. The expression of GAGs is required for embryogenesis, regulation of cell growth and proliferation, maintenance of tissue hydration, and interactions of the cells via receptors. Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are caused by deficiency of specific lysosomal enzymes that result in the accumulation of GAGs in multiple tissues leading to organ dysfunction. Therefore, GAGs are important biomarkers for MPS. Without any treatment, patients with severe forms of MPS die within the first two decades of life.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

Accurate measurement of GAGs is important to understand the diagnosis and pathogenesis of MPS and to monitor therapeutic efficacy before, during, and after treatment of the disease. This review covers various qualitative and quantitative methods for measurement of GAGs, including dye specific, thin layer chromatography (TLC), capillary electrophoresis, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), gas chromatography, ELISA, and automated high-throughput mass spectrometry. Major conclusion: There are several methods for GAG detection however, specific GAG detection in the various biological systems requires rapid, sensitive, specific, and cost-effective methods such as LC-MS/MS.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

This review will describe different methods for GAG detection and analysis, including their advantages and limitation.

Glycosaminoglycans detection methods: Applications of mass spectrometry

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are long blocks of negatively charged polysaccharides. They are one of the major components of the extracellular matrix and play multiple roles in different tissues and organs. The accumulation of undegraded GAGs causes mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS). GAGs are associated with other pathological conditions such as osteoarthritis, inflammation, diabetes mellitus, spinal cord injury, and cancer. The need for further understanding of GAG functions and mechanisms of action boosted the development of qualitative and quantitative (alcian blue, toluidine blue, paper and thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography, high pressure liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, 1,9-dimethylmethylene blue, enzyme linked-immunosorbent assay, mass spectrometry) techniques. The availability of quantitative techniques has facilitated translational research on GAGs into the medical field for: 1) diagnosis, monitoring, and screening for MPS; 2) analysis of GAG synthetic and degradation pathways; and 3) determination of physiological and pathological roles of GAGs. This review provides a history of development of GAG assays and insights about the use of tandem mass spectrometry and its applications for GAG analysis.

Capillary electrophoresis of complex natural polysaccharides

Complex natural polysaccharides, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), are a class of ubiquitous macromolecules that exhibit a wide range of biological functions and participate and regulate multiple cellular events and (patho)physiological processes. They are generally present either as free chains (hyaluronic acid and bacterial acidic polysaccharides) or as side chains of proteoglycans (PGs; chondroitin/dermatan sulfate, heparin/heparan sulfate, and keratan sulfate) and are most often found in cell membranes and in the extracellular matrix. The recent emergence of modern analytical tools for their study has produced a virtual explosion in the field of glycomics. CE, due to its high resolving power and sensitivity, has been useful in the analysis of intact GAGs and GAG-derived oligosaccharides and disaccharides affording concentration and structural characterization data essential for understanding the biological functions of GAGs. In this review, novel off-line and on-line CE-MS and MS/MS methods for screening of GAG-derived oligosaccharides and disaccharides will be discussed.

Combining capillary with radio-frequency-only quadrupole as an interface for a home-made time-of-flight mass spectrometer

A heated capillary tube combined with a radio-frequency-only quadrupole has been coupled with a home- made, high-resolution orthogonal-injection, time-of-flight mass spectrometer to improve ion transmission from the atmospheric pressure to the low--pressure regions. With an electrospray ion source, the performance of the interface on the intensity of spectra was investigated. For electrospray ionization, the ion intensity detected on the time-of- flight mass spectrometer was seen to increase three-fold compared with an orifice interface. It has been shown that the enhanced ion inlet designs can not only increase the ion translation efficiency, but also improve the detection limits of the mass spectrometer. Coupling atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization with the improved interface resulted in an instrument detection limit as low as 2.5 fmol.

Classification of high-speed gas chromatography–mass spectrometry data by principal component analysis coupled with piecewise alignment and feature selection

A useful methodology is introduced for the analysis of data obtained via gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) utilizing a complete mass spectrum at each retention time interval in which a mass spectrum was collected. Principal component analysis (PCA) with preprocessing by both piecewise retention time alignment and analysis of variance (ANOVA) feature selection is applied to all mass channels collected. The methodology involves concatenating all concurrently measured individual m/z chromatograms from m/z 20 to 120 for each GC-MS separation into a row vector. All of the sample row vectors are incorporated into a matrix where each row is a sample vector. This matrix is piecewise aligned and reduced by ANOVA feature selection. Application of the preprocessing steps (retention time alignment and feature selection) to all mass channels collected during the chromatographic separation allows considerably more selective chemical information to be incorporated in the PCA classification, and is the primary novelty of the report. This methodology is objective and requires no knowledge of the specific analytes of interest, as in selective ion monitoring (SIM), and does not restrict the mass spectral data used, as in both SIM and total ion current (TIC) methods. Significantly, the methodology allows for the classification of data with low resolution in the chromatographic dimension because of the added selectivity from the complete mass spectral dimension. This allows for the successful classification of data over significantly decreased chromatographic separation times, since high-speed separations can be employed. The methodology is demonstrated through the analysis of a set of four differing gasoline samples that serve as model complex samples. For comparison, the gasoline samples are analyzed by GC-MS over both 10-min and 10-s separation times. The successfully classified 10-min GC-MS TIC data served as the benchmark analysis to compare to the 10-s data. When only alignment and feature selection was applied to the 10-s gasoline separations using GC-MS TIC data, PCA failed. PCA was successful for 10-s gasoline separations when the methodology was applied with all the m/z information. With ANOVA feature selection, chromatographic regions with Fisher ratios greater than 1500 were retained in a new matrix and subjected to PCA yielding successful classification for the 10-s separations.

A simplified multidimensional approach for analysis of complex biological samples: on-line LC-CE-MS

Information on protein expression, disease biomarkers or surrogate markers and genetic disorders can nowadays be achieved from analysis of complex biological samples by liquid separation coupled to mass spectrometric (MS) detection. This paper describes fast multidimensional separation by on-line liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), followed by electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) MS detection. This detector provides ultrahigh resolution of the detected ions, mass accuracy at the ppm-level and high sensitivity. Most of the challenge of this system lies in the development of a new interface for the on-line coupling of LC to CE. The interface developed in poly(dimethylsiloxane) provides a RSD for injection repeatability of <3.5% and surface control for unspecific binding by deactivation with a cationic polymer, PolyE-323. We have evaluated the interface, as well as the overall system, with respect to robustness and deconvolution ability. Sequence coverage for bovine serum albumin (BSA) of 93% showed a high recovery of sample in the different transfer steps through the system. The detection limit for identification is 277 ng mL(-1) (or 280 nM) on average for peptides. In the future, we expect LC-CE-MS to be a novel strategy for elucidating the chemistry of biological matrices.

Advances in the analysis of proteins and peptides by capillary electrophoresis with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization and electrospray-mass spectrometry detection

High throughput, outstanding certainty in peptide/protein identification, exceptional resolution, and quantitative information are essential pillars in proteome research. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) has proven to meet these requirements. Soft ionization techniques, such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and electrospray ionization (ESI), have paved the way for the story of success of CE-MS in the analysis of biomolecules and both approaches are subject of discussion in this article. Meanwhile, CE-MS is far away from representing a homogeneous field. Therefore the review will cover a vast area including the coupling of different modes of CE (capillary zone electrophoresis, capillary isoelectric foscusing, capillary electrochromatography, micellar electrokinetic chromatography, nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis) to MS as well as on-line preconcentration techniques (transient capillary isotachophoresis, solid-phase extraction, membrane preconcentration) applied to compensate for restricted detection sensitivity. Special attention is given to improvements in interfacing, namely addressing nanospray and coaxial sheath liquid design. Peptide mapping, collision-induced dissociation with subsequent tandem MS, and amendments in mass accuracy of instruments improve information validity gained from MS data. With 2-D on-line coupling of liquid chromatography (LC) and CE a further topic will be discussed. A special section is dedicated to recent attempts in establishing CE-ESI-MS in proteomics, in the clinical and diagnostic field, and in the food sector.

Analysis of the glucosinolate pattern ofArabidopsis thalianaseeds by capillary zone electrophoresis coupled to electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

An easy and rapid method for the analysis of intact, non-desulfated glucosinolates by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) coupled to electrospray ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS) is described. Surprisingly, an electrolyte and a sheath liquid based on formic acid provided the best results. In this strongly acidic system, the glucosinolates were separated and detected as anions, resulting in an excellent selectivity. Thus, crude plant extracts could be analyzed without any interference of matrix constituents. The sensitivity together with mass accuracy and true isotopic pattern of the TOF-MS allowed identification of a broad series of glucosinolates in Arabidopsis thaliana seeds.

High Sequence Coverage of Proteins Isolated from Liquid Separations of Breast Cancer Cells Using Capillary Electrophoresis-Time-of-Flight MS and MALDI-TOF MS Mapping

A method has been developed for high sequence coverage analysis of proteins isolated from breast cancer cell lines. Intact proteins are isolated using multidimensional liquid-phase separations that permit the collection of individual protein fractions. Protein digests are then analyzed by both matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) peptide mass fingerprinting and by capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization (CE-ESI)-TOF MS peptide mapping. These methods can be readily interfaced to the relatively clean proteins resulting from liquid-phase fractionation of cell lysates with little sample preparation. Using combined sequence information provided by both mapping methods, 100% sequence coverage is often obtained for smaller proteins, while for larger proteins up to 75 kDa, over 90% coverage can be obtained. Furthermore, an accurate intact protein MW value (within 150 ppm) can be obtained from ESI-TOF MS. The intact MW together with high coverage sequence information provides accurate identification. More notably the high sequence coverage of CE-ESI-TOF MS together with the MS/MS information provided by the ion trap/reTOF MS elucidates posttranslational modifications, sequence changes, truncations, and isoforms that may otherwise go undetected when standard MALDI-MS peptide fingerprinting is used. This capability is critical in the analysis of human cancer cells where large numbers of expressed proteins are modified, and these modifications may play an important role in the cancer process.

Capillary electrophoresis for the analysis of glycosaminoglycans and glycosaminoglycan-derived oligosaccharides

Glycosaminoglycans are a family of polydisperse, highly sulfated complex mixtures of linear polysaccharides that are involved in many life processes. Defining the structure of glycosaminoglycans is an important factor in elucidating their structure-activity relationship. Capillary electrophoresis has emerged as a highly promising technique consuming an extremely small amount of sample and capable of rapid, high-resolution separation, characterization and quantitation of analytes. Numerous capillary electrophoresis methods for analysis of intact glycosaminoglycans and glycosaminoglycan-derived oligosaccharides have been developed. These methods allow for both qualitative and quantitative analysis with a high level of sensitivity. This review is concerned with separation methods of capillary electrophoresis, detection methods and applications to several aspects of research into glycosaminoglycans and glycosaminoglycan-derived oligosaccharides. The importance of capillary electrophoresis in biological and pharmaceutical samples in glycobiology and carbohydrate biochemistry and its possible applications in disease diagnosis and monitoring chemical synthesis are described.

Mass analysis at the advent of the 21st century

There have been many new and exciting developments in mass spectrometer systems in recent years. Many of these developments are being driven by challenges presented by molecular biology. The activity is fueled by resources being devoted to drug development, for example, and other medically and biologically related activities. Progress in these applications will be accelerated by improved sensitivity, specificity, and speed. In mass spectrometry, this translates to greater mass resolving power, mass accuracy, mass-to-charge range, efficiency, and speed. It is safe to say that the demands resulting from current analytical needs are likely to be met to varying degrees but probably not by a single analyzer technology or hybrid instrument. On-line and/or off-line separations and manipulations combined with mass spectrometry will also play increasingly important roles. For any analyzer, or combination of analyzers, to become widely used it must have an important application for which its figures of merit are best suited, relative to competing approaches. The relative cost of competing technologies is also an important factor. The mass filter has seen so much use in the past 30 years because its characteristics best fit a wide range of applications. As an example, biological applications, which are currently driving many instrument development activities in mass spectrometry, demand more information, of higher quality, from less material, faster, and at lower cost. Which technologies will dominate biological applications in the coming years is open to speculation. However, in considering the relative merits of today's dominant mass analyzers, areas of opportunity for improvement are apparent. Furthermore, new and more demanding measurement needs are constantly being recognized that will continue to exercise the creativity of the mass spectrometry community.

Characterization of multipole storage assisted dissociation: implications for electrospray ionization mass spectrometry characterization of biomolecules

Ions accumulated in an rf-only multipole for extended periods of time prior to mass analysis can experience a significant degree of fragmentation and produce mass spectra which do not reflect the true nature of the intact analyte(s). This phenomenon, termed multipole storage assisted dissociation (MSAD), places constraints on the maximum number of ions which can be accumulated in the multipole storage device as a result of its finite space charge limit. This phenomenon can be exploited to produce dissociation spectra that are dominated by fragment ions providing important sequence/structure information. In this work we further explore MSAD and characterize parameters including accumulation time, source pressure, and the electrostatic configuration of the multipole storage device, which mediate the phenomenon. Operating parameters are identified that can either enhance or eliminate the phenomenon.

Capillary electrophoresis/tandem mass spectrometry for analysis of proteins from two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoresis/time-of-flight mass spectrometry(CE/TOFMS) has been used for analysis of in-gel digests of protein spots excised from two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D SDS-PAGE). An off-line purification and preconcentration procedure with a Zip Tip is used before CE/TOFMS analysis which allows for detection of protein spots with <1 picomole of material from 2-D gels. The off-line procedure provides sufficient purification for analysis while maintaining the quality of the CE separation. Using this procedure, several proteins from Coomassie Blue and zinc negatively stained gels are identified by the peptide maps generated and database searching. CE/TOF tandem mass spectrometry is used for the confirmation of database searching results and structural analysis of peptides that do not match the expected peptide maps obtained from the database in order to identify structural modifications. Several modifications were pinpointed and identified by this method.

Analyte identification in capillary electrophoretic separation techniques

A review on applications of on-line hyphenation in capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrochromatography for the identification of migrating analytes is presented. There is an urgent need for unambiguous analyte identification by combining spectral information and observed migration times, because the parameters influencing the migration times and separation efficiencies in these separation techniques are not easily controlled, especially when real samples containing unknown interferences have to be analyzed. The spectrometric techniques covered here are ultraviolet and visible radiation (UV/Vis) absorption, fluorescence including fluorescence line-narrowing spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. Attention is essentially confined to literature reports in which the extra information provided by the detector is really used for identification purposes, especially in real-life samples, while the interfacing as such and analyte detectabilities in standard solutions are only briefly discussed. This article covers an extensive fraction of the literature published on this topic until the beginning of 1998.

Pressure-assisted and pressure-programmed capillary electrophoresis/electrospray ionization time of flight-mass spectrometry for the analysis of peptide mixtures

Pressure assisting and pressure programming the inlet of the capillary electrophoresis instrument were used for the analysis of peptide mixtures and protein digests using capillary electrophoresis/electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (CE/ESI-MS). CE/ESI-MS of peptide mixtures and tryptic digests of proteins was studied using three different types of capillary columns: (i) a freshly aminopropylsilane (APS)-treated column, (ii) an untreated column, and (iii) a degraded APS-treated column. To maintain a constant and adequate buffer flow toward the CE capillary outlet for stable CE and ESI operation, low pressure was applied to the inlet of the CE when an untreated or degraded APS capillary was used. By programming the inlet pressure, CE/ESI-MS analysis time was reduced to 1/3 of its original time. The utility of this technique is demonstrated by CE/ESI-MS analysis of a hemoglobin variant (hemoglobin-S) and its tryptic digests. Identification of the mutant peptide in the tryptic digest of hemoglobin-S was achieved by collision-induced dissociation (CID) of the protein digests using CE/ESI time of flight-mass spectrometry (TOF-MS).