Hydrogen atom scrambling in selectively labeled anionic peptides upon collisional activation by MALDI tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry

J Am Soc Mass Spectrom. 2008 Dec;19(12):1719-25. doi: 10.1016/j.jasms.2008.05.021. Epub 2008 Jun 11.

Abstract

We have previously shown that peptide amide hydrogens undergo extensive intramolecular migration (i.e., complete hydrogen scrambling) upon collisional activation of protonated peptides (Jørgensen et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 2785-2793). The occurrence of hydrogen scrambling enforces severe limitations on the application of gas-phase fragmentation as a convenient method to obtain information about the site-specific deuterium uptake for proteins and peptides in solution. To investigate whether deprotonated peptides exhibit a lower level of scrambling relative to their protonated counterparts, we have now measured the level of hydrogen scrambling in a deprotonated, selectively labeled peptide using MALDI tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Our results conclusively show that hydrogen scrambling is prevalent in the deprotonated peptide upon collisional activation. The amide hydrogens ((1)H/(2)H) have migrated extensively in the anionic peptide, thereby erasing the original regioselective deuteration pattern obtained in solution.

Publication types

  • Comment
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Anions
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen / chemistry
  • In Vitro Techniques
  • Models, Molecular
  • Oligopeptides / chemistry
  • Oligopeptides / pharmacology
  • Peptides / chemistry*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator / chemistry
  • Recombinant Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / methods*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods*

Substances

  • Anions
  • Oligopeptides
  • Peptides
  • Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Hydrogen