Use of capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in the analysis of synthetic peptides

• Published in: Journal of chromatography. A Vol. 675; no. 1-2; p. 219
• Main Authors: Rosnack, K J, Stroh, J G, Singleton, D H, Guarino, B C, Andrews, G C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 22-07-1994
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Carrier Proteins - analysis; Electrons; Electrophoresis - methods; Glycoproteins - analysis; Ions; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Molecular Sequence Data; Neuregulin-1; Neuregulins; Peptide Fragments - analysis; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
• ISSN: 0021-9673
• DOI: 10.1016/0021-9673(94)85275-8

We have constructed a capillary electrophoresis (CE) system with UV detection and have successfully interfaced it to an electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ES-MS) system. A synthesized fragment of heregulin-beta (212-226) was thought to be a single component by re-injection into an HPLC system, but results from CE-UV-ES-MS indicated that a dehydration product was present in the desired peptide sample. A synthetic heregulin-alpha (177-241) was isolated by preparative HPLC, but re-injection on an analytical system indicated a tailing peak. CE-UV-ES-MS indicated a mixture whose two major components were of the same nominal molecular mass (within experimental error), suggesting the presence of an isomer or a deamidation product. The results show that CE-UV-ES-MS can be used as an orthogonal analytical technique to solve practical problems encountered in peptide synthesis laboratories.