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Enantiomeric differentiation of aromatic amino acids by traveling wave ion mobility-mass spectrometry (CAT#: STEM-ST-0159-LJX)

Introduction

The service achieved the first differentiation of enantiomers using the coupling of traveling wave ion mobility and mass spectrometry (TWIM-MS). This study was carried out on amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which together with nucleotides, polysaccharides or lipids, are the main constituents of all living organisms. Herein, the enantiomers of aromatic amino acids (AA) such as phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine are differentiated by TWIM-MS through their cationisation with copper(II) and multimer formation with D-proline (Pro) as a chiral reference compound. This methodology can be considered as an alternative approach to conventional methods for the separation of enantiomers. Moreover, quantification of the enantiomers can be performed easily and quickly using TWIM-MS analysis of the ionic complex [(DPro)2+D/LAA+CuII–H]+.




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:
Aromatic amino acids

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.