State Key Laboratory for Chirosciences, Food Safety and Technology Research Centre, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; Institute of Mass Spectrometer and Atmospheric Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
State Key Laboratory for Chirosciences, Food Safety and Technology Research Centre, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation), Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Food Biological Safety Control, Shenzhen Research Institute of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518057, China; Key Laboratory of Natural Resources of Changbai Mountain and Functional Molecules (Yanbian University), Ministry of Education, Yanji, Jilin 133002, China.
Anal Chim Acta. 2018 Apr 3;1004:51-57. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2017.11.079. Epub 2017 Dec 12.
Detection of native proteins, particularly directly from raw biological samples, has been a challenging task for mass spectrometry. In this study, we demonstrated that solid-substrate electrospray ionization mass spectrometry with nonpolar solvents such as n-hexane could allow detection of native proteins and protein complexes directly from raw biological samples. Mechanistic study revealed that the process involved rapid vaporization of the nonpolar solvent, temperature reduction of substrate surface, condensation of water from the ambient air, and spray ionization of the condensed water with analytes under the electric field. The fine spray with water at low temperature allowed the technique to detect native proteins, even directly from viscous samples (e.g., egg white) and solid samples (e.g., bone marrow). This study sheds new insight into the sampling and ionization process of mass spectrometry and provides a technique of great potential for characterization of proteins.
直接从原始生物样本中检测天然蛋白质一直是质谱分析的一项具有挑战性的任务。在本研究中，我们证明了采用非极性溶剂（如正己烷）的固相基质辅助电喷雾电离质谱法可以直接从原始生物样本中检测天然蛋白质和蛋白质复合物。机理研究表明，这一过程涉及非极性溶剂的快速蒸发、基质表面温度降低、周围空气中的水蒸气冷凝以及在电场作用下将冷凝水和分析物喷雾电离。低温下的水雾细雾使该技术能够检测天然蛋白质，甚至可以直接检测粘性样本（如蛋清）和固体样本（如骨髓）。本研究为质谱分析的采样和电离过程提供了新的见解，并为蛋白质的特性分析提供了一种极具潜力的技术。
