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Conformational conversion from random assembly to β-sheet in amyloid fibril formation by ion mobility–mass spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0147-LJX)

Introduction

Amyloid cascades that lead to peptide β-sheet fibrils and plaques are central to many important diseases. Recently, intermediate assemblies of these cascades were identified as the toxic agents that interact with cellular machinery. The location and cause of the transformation from a natively unstructured assembly to the β-sheet oligomers found in all fibrils is important in understanding disease onset and the development of therapeutic agents. Largely, research on this early oligomeric region was unsuccessful because all the traditional techniques measure only the average oligomer properties of the ensemble. We utilized ion-mobility methods to deduce the peptide self-assembly mechanism and examined a series of amyloid-forming peptides clipped from larger peptides or proteins associated with disease. We provide unambiguous evidence for structural transitions in each of these fibril-forming peptide systems and establish the potential of this method for the development of therapeutic agents and drug evaluation.




Principle

Ion mobility spectrometry–mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) is an analytical chemistry method that separates gas phase ions based on their interaction with a collision gas and their masses. In the first step, the ions are separated according to their mobility through a buffer gas on a millisecond timescale using an ion mobility spectrometer. The separated ions are then introduced into a mass analyzer in a second step where their mass-to-charge ratios can be determined on a microsecond timescale.

Applications

For studying the gas phase ion structure
For detecting the chemical warfare agents and explosives
For the analysis of proteins, peptides, drug-like molecules and nano particles
For monitoring isomeric reaction intermediates and probe their kinetics
For proteomics and pharmaceutical analysis

Procedure

1. Add sample
2. The ions in the sample are separated in the ion mobility spectrometer
3. The separated ions are introduced into the mass analyzer for detection
4. Store the detection results

Materials

• Sample Type:
Amyloid fibril

Notes

1. Ion mobility spectrometry is also a very fast technique, making it suitable for high-throughput applications. The entire analysis can be completed in just a few minutes.
2. The method is extremely sensitive and able to detect trace amounts of contaminants that other spectrometry methods would miss.
3. The effective separation of analytes achieved with this method makes it widely applicable in the analysis of complex samples such as in proteomics and metabolomics.