Nejvíce citovaný článek - PubMed ID 33085896
Sense and Nonsense of Elevated Column Temperature in Proteomic Bottom-up LC-MS Analyses
Elevating the column temperature is an effective strategy for improving the chromatographic separation of peptides. However, high temperatures induce artificial modifications that compromise the quality of the peptide analysis. Here, we present a novel high-temperature LC-MS method that retains the benefits of a high column temperature while significantly reducing peptide modification and degradation during reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Our approach leverages a short inline trap column maintained at a near-ambient temperature installed upstream of a separation column. The retentivity and dimensions of the trap column were optimized to shorten the residence time of peptides in the heated separation column without compromising the separation performance. This easy-to-implement approach increased peak capacity by 1.4-fold within a 110 min peptide mapping of trastuzumab and provided 10% more peptide identifications in exploratory LC-MS proteomic analyses compared with analyses conducted at 30 °C while maintaining the extent of modifications close to the background level. In the peptide mapping of biopharmaceuticals, where in-column modifications can falsely elevate the levels of some critical quality attributes, the method reduced temperature-related artifacts by 66% for N-terminal pyroGlu and 63% for oxidized Met compared to direct injection at 60 °C, thus improving reliability in quality control of protein drugs. Our findings represent a promising advancement in LC-MS methodology, providing researchers and industry professionals with a valuable tool for improving the chromatographic separation of peptides while significantly reducing the unwanted modifications.
- MeSH
- biologické přípravky analýza chemie MeSH
- chromatografie kapalinová metody MeSH
- hmotnostní spektrometrie MeSH
- kapalinová chromatografie-hmotnostní spektrometrie MeSH
- peptidy analýza chemie MeSH
- proteiny analýza izolace a purifikace chemie MeSH
- proteomika * metody MeSH
- řízení kvality * MeSH
- trastuzumab chemie analýza MeSH
- vysoká teplota MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Názvy látek
- biologické přípravky MeSH
- peptidy MeSH
- proteiny MeSH
- trastuzumab MeSH
Sample preparation involving the cleavage of proteins into peptides is the first critical step for successful bottom-up proteomics and protein analyses. Time- and labor-intensiveness are among the bottlenecks of the commonly used methods for protein sample preparation. Here, we report a fast online method for postinjection acid cleavage of proteins directly in the mobile phase typically used for LC-MS analyses in proteomics. The chemical cleavage is achieved in 0.1% formic acid within 35 s in a capillary heated to 195 °C installed upstream of the analytical column, enabling the generated peptides to be separated. The peptides generated by the optimized method covered the entire sequence except for one amino acid of trastuzumab used for the method development. The qualitative results are extraordinarily stable, even over a long period of time. Moreover, the method is also suitable for accurate and repeatable quantification. The procedure requires only one manual step, significantly decreasing sample transfer losses. To demonstrate its practical utility, we tested the method for the fast detection of ricin. Ricin can be unambiguously identified from an injection of 10 ng, and the results can be obtained within 7-8 min after receiving a suspicious sample. Because no sophisticated accessories and no additional reagents are needed, the method can be seamlessly transferred to any laboratory for high-throughput proteomic workflows.