Peptide capillary zone electrophoresis mass spectrometry of recombinant human erythropoietin: an evaluation of the analytical method.

An evaluation of capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CZE-MS) as an analytical methodology for the separation and characterization of complex glycopeptides and nonglycopeptide structures has been performed. The evaluation employed endoproteinase V8 digested recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) that was further fractionated by reverse phase chromatography. The peptides were subjected to sequence analysis and evaluated by capillary electrophoresis, with or without mass detection, for peptide purity. The peptide mass determined from the sequence was then compared to the mass obtained from CZE-MS. Glycosylation sites and carbohydrate branch patterns were easily determined, site specific microheterogeneity (either O-acetylation of N-acetylneuraminic acids or lactosamine extensions of the carbohydrate chain length) was assessed directly, glycosylation site occupancy was evaluated qualitatively, and nonglycopeptides were resolved and analyzed on-line with ease. Incomplete peptide digestion products were detected and identified by CZE-MS. Protein sequence coverage by CZE-MS was 98.2 percent complete from a single map. Off-line evaluation of peptide purity by CZE greatly aided the interpretation of multiple sequence analysis and, in validating that, the CZE-MS was detecting all peptides present. All off-line CZE and on-line CZE-MS experiments employed a capillary that was dynamically coated with Polybrene in the presence of polyethylene glycol; separations were conducted in 0.67 M formic acid.