• Mass Spectrometry Letters
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.20-23
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate the in vitro metabolism of hesperetin, a bioflavonoid. Hesperetin was incubated with rat liver microsomes in the presence of NADPH and UDP-glucuronic acid for 30 min. The reaction mixture was analyzed by liquid chromatography-ion trap mass spectrometer and the chemical structures of hesperetin metabolites were characterzed based on their MS/MS spectra. As a result, a total of five metabolites were detected in rat liver microsomes. The metabolites were identified as a de-methylated metabolite (eriodictyol), two hesperetin glucuronides, and two eriodictyol glucuronides.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
• /
• v.1 no.3
• /
• pp.9.1-9.6
• /
• 2009

Introduction: In the mass spectrometry-based proteomics, biological samples are analyzed to identify proteins by mass spectrometer and database search. Database search is the process to select the best matches to the experimental mass spectra among the amino acid sequence database and we identify the protein as the matched sequence. The match score is defined to find the matches from the database and declare the highest scored hit as the most probable protein. According to the score definition, search result varies. In this study, the difference among search results of different search engines or different databases was investigated, in order to suggest a better way to identify more proteins with higher reliability. Materials and Methods: The protein extract of human mesenchymal stem cell was separated by several bands by one-dimensional electrophorysis. One-dimensional gel was excised one by one, digested by trypsin and analyzed by a mass spectrometer, FT LTQ. The tandem mass (MS/MS) spectra of peptide ions were applied to the database search of X!Tandem, Mascot and Sequest search engines with IPI human database and SwissProt database. The search result was filtered by several threshold probability values of the Trans-Proteomic Pipeline (TPP) of the Institute for Systems Biology. The analysis of the output which was generated from TPP was performed. Results and Discussion: For each MS/MS spectrum, the peptide sequences which were identified from different conditions such as search engines, threshold probability, and sequence database were compared. The main difference of peptide identification at high threshold probability was caused by not the difference of sequence database but the difference of the score. As the threshold probability decreases, the missed peptides appeared. Conversely, in the extremely high threshold level, we missed many true assignments. Conclusion and Prospects: The different identification result of the search engines was mainly caused by the different scoring algorithms. Usually in proteomics high-scored peptides are selected and low-scored peptides are discarded. Many of them are true negatives. By integrating the search results from different parameter and different search engines, the protein identification process can be improved.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.1470-1475
• /
• 2009

The seed coat of the black soybean contains 3 main anthocyanins such as delphinidin-3-O-$\beta$-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-$\beta$-glucoside, and petunidin-3-O-$\beta$-glucoside. As a part of our effort on discovering and breeding new black soybean cultivars which possesses specific anthocyanin component rich, we determined the anthocyanin profiles of the 2 cultivars recently developed soybean cv. Gaechuck #1 and cv. Gyeongsang #1, using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and compared their content and identity with those of previously known 10 cultivar controls. The Cosmosil-$5C_{18}$-AR-II column were selected for the analysis because of the best peak separation. The column temperature was set up at $35^{\circ}C$. The mobile phase consisting of water containing 0.5%(v/v) formic acid and methanol gave good separation between the 3 anthocyanin analytes and internal standard (quercetin 3-O-$\beta$-rutinoside) and peaks with suppressed tail. The MS/MS spectra of each individual anthocyanin standard were detected in positive electron spray ionization (ESI) modes. It was disclosed that the anthocyanin contents of the soybean cv. Gaechuck#1 and cv. Gyeongsang#1 are roughly higher than those of the 10 controls.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.66-75
• /
• 2021

Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 are cytokines secreted by immune cells. Cytokines induce the proliferation of macrophages or promote the differentiation of secretory cells. The initiation and progression of allergic inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, are dependent on cytokines acting through related receptor complexes. IL-4 and IL-13 are N-glycoproteins. Glycan structures in glycoproteins play important roles in protein folding, protein stability, enzymatic function, inflammation, and cancer development. Therefore, the glycan structure of IL-4 and IL-13 needs to be elucidated in detail for the development of effective therapies. We report the first attempt to characterize the site-specific N-glycosylation of recombinant IL-4 and IL-13 via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. The tandem mass spectra of intact N-glycopeptides were identified using the Integrated GlycoProteome Analyzer (I-GPA) platform, which can automatically and rapidly analyze multiple N-glycopeptides, including their glycan composition and amino acid sequences. The recombinant IL-4 and IL-13 were identified with amino acid sequence coverages of 84% and 96%, respectively. For IL-4, 52 glycoforms on one N-glycosylation site were identified and quantified. In IL-13, 232 N-glycopeptides from three N-glycosylation sites were characterized, with the site Asn52 being the most extensively glycosylated (~80%). The complex glycans were the most abundant glycan on IL-4 and IL-13 (~96% and 91%, respectively), and the biantennary glycans were the most abundant in both recombinant IL-4 and IL-13 proteins.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.292-299
• /
• 2014

Iopromide is an X-ray contrast agent that has been detected frequently with high concentration level in surface waters. Structural characterization of degradation products and measurement of degradation efficiency of iopromide by an electron beam irradiation were performed. For the fortified sample with iopromide, electron beam irradiation (UELV-10-10S, klysotrn, 10 MeV, 1 mA and 10 kW) was performed. The chemical structures of I_D_665 and I_D_663, which are degradation products of iopromide, were proposed by interpretation of mass spectra and chromatograms by LC/ESI-MS/MS. The mass fragmentation pathways of mass spectra in tandem mass spectrometry were also proposed. Iopromide was degraded 30.5~98.4% at dose of 0.3~5 kGy, and 97.8~30% in the concentration range $0.5{\sim}100{\mu}g/kg$ at electron beam dose of 0.3 kGy, respectively. Thus, increased degradation efficiency of iopromide by electron beam irradiation was observed with a higher dose of electron beam and lower concentration.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.41-46
• /
• 2021

Collision-induced dissociation (CID) and higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD) are the widely used fragmentation technique in mass spectrometry-based proteomics studies. Understanding the fragmentation pattern from the tandem mass spectra using statistical methods helps to implement efficient spectrum analysis algorithms. The study characterizes the frequency of occurrence of multi-charged fragment ions and their neutral loss events of doubly and triply charged peptides in the CID and HCD spectrum. The dependency of the length of the fragment ion on the occurrence of multi-charged fragment ion is characterized here. Study shows that the singly charged fragment ions are generally dominated in the doubly charged peptide spectrum. However, as the length of the product ion increases, the frequency of occurrence of charge 2 fragment ions increases. The y- ions have more tendencies to generate charge 2 fragment ions than b- ions, both in CID and HCD spectrum. The frequency of occurrence of charge 2 fragment ion peaks is prominent upon the dissociation of the triply charged peptides. For triply charged peptides, product ion of higher length occurred in multiple charge states in CID spectrum. The neutral loss peaks mostly exist in charge 2 states in the triply charged peptide spectrum. The b-ions peaks are observed in much less frequency than y-ions in HCD spectrum as the length of the fragment increases. Isotopic peaks are occurred in charge 2 state both in doubly and triply charged peptide's HCD spectrum.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.1409-1412
• /
• 2014

Sex hormones are important metabolites in vertebrates' development and reproduction. For rapid screening sex hormones, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the promising analytical platforms, but MALDI MS faces many challenges in detecting steroids such as low ionization efficiency and matrix background interference. One potential strategy to overcome matrix interference in the low m/z region is using a cyclodextrin (CD)-supported matrix for steroid analysis since CD-supported matrixes are known to effectively suppress matrix-related ion signals. In this study, we aimed to find the optimal CD-supported matrix for the analysis of the nonderivatized sex steroids. Our results showed that the ${\alpha}CD$-supported 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) matrix efficiently ionized all three major classes of sex hormones, estrogens, androgens, and progestagens, with low or no matrix background and also with high sensitivity. In addition, the ${\alpha}CD$-supported DHB matrix mainly generated molecular ions or protonated ions of sex hormones, and this enabled us to obtain information-rich tandem mass spectra which potentially lead to unambiguous identification of steroid species from complex metabolite mixtures.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.1183-1186
• /
• 2011

The unique Br signature was utilized for C-terminal amino acid sequencing of model peptides. C-terminal carboxyl group was selectively derivatized in peptides, containing side chain carboxyl group, using 1-ethyl-3-[3-dimethylaminopropyl]carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and Br was introduced using 4-bromophenylhydrazine hydrochloride (BPH) in a one pot reaction. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) tandem mass spectra were obtained carrying the Br signature in the y-series ions. The Br signature facilitated C-terminal sequencing and discrimination of C-terminal carboxyl groups in the free acid and amide forms.

• Bioinformatics and Biosystems
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.46-51
• /
• 2007

In the proteomics research using mass spectrometry, the protein database search gives the protein information from the peptide sequences that show the best match with the tandem mass spectra. The protein sequence database has been a powerful knowledgebase for this protein identification. However, as we accumulate the protein sequence information in the database, the database size gets to be huge. Now it becomes hard to consider all the protein sequences in the database search because it consumes much computing time. For the high-throughput analysis of the proteome, usually we have used the non-redundant refined database such as IPI human database of European Bioinformatics Institute. While the non-redundant database can supply the search result in high speed, it misses the variation of the protein sequences. In this study, we have concerned the proteomics data in the point of protein similarities and used the network analysis tool to build a new analysis method. This method will be able to save the computing time for the database search and keep the sequence variation to catch the modified peptides.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.368-376
• /
• 2019

Background: In the current phytochemical research on ginseng, the differentiation and structural identification of ginsenosides isomers remain challenging. In this paper, a two-dimensional mass spectrometry (2D-MS) method was developed and combined with statistical analysis for the direct differentiation, identification, and relative quantification of protopanaxadiol (PPD)-type ginsenoside isomers. Methods: Collision-induced dissociation was performed at successive collision energy values to produce distinct profiles of the intensity fraction (IF) and ratio of intensity (RI) of the fragment ions. To amplify the differences in tandem mass spectra between isomers, IF and RI were plotted against collision energy. The resulting data distributions were then used to obtain the parameters of the fitted curves, which were used to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences between these distributions via the unpaired t test. Results: A triplet and two pairs of PPD-type ginsenoside isomers were differentiated and identified by their distinct IF and RI distributions. In addition, the fragmentation preference of PPD-type ginsenosides was determined on the basis of the activation energy. The developed 2D-MS method was also extended to quantitatively determine the molar composition of ginsenoside isomers in mixtures of biotransformation products. Conclusion: In comparison with conventional mass spectrometry methods, 2D-MS provides more direct insights into the subtle structural differences between isomers and can be used as an alternative approach for the differentiation of isomeric ginsenosides and natural products.