Characterization of mannooligosaccharide caps in mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan by capillary electrophoresis/electrospray mass spectrometry

A new analytical approach based on capillary electrophoresis-electrospray mass spectrometry (CE/ESI-MS) has provided new insight into the characterization of mannooligosaccharide caps from lipoarabinomannans (LAMs), which are key molecules in the immunopathogenesis of tuberculosis. This analytical approach requires oligosaccharide labeling with the fluorophore 1-aminopyrene-3,6,8-trisulfonate (APTS) by reductive amination at the reducing termini. Optimization of the separation and ionization conditions, such as the choice of capillary electrophoresis (CE) electrolyte buffers, is presented and discussed. Anionic separation of the mono and oligosaccharide APTS derivatives was finally achieved with aqueous triethylammonium formate buffer. It was found that in contrast to the triethylammonium phosphate buffer, the triethylammonium formate buffer was appropriate for CE/ESI-MS coupling analysis of APTS-carbohydrate derivatives. In this case, negative ESI-mass spectra of APTS-carbohydrate adducts showed mainly (M-2H)2-pseudomolecular ions and some sequence fragment ions allowing their non-ambiguous structural characterization at the picomolar level. This analytical approach was successfully applied to more complex mixtures of carbohydrates released by mild acid hydrolysis of the lipoarabinomannans from Mycobacterium bovis BCG. The APTS-mannooligosaccharide cap adducts were separated by CE and their structural characterization achieved by CE/ESI-MS analyses. Mannooligosaccharide caps were routinely analyzed by capillary electrophoresis-laser induced fluorescence (CE-LIF) from 50 fmol of lipoarabinomannans with mannosyl capping (ManLAMs) but sensitivity was about 50 times lower using ESI-MS detection.