Improved collision-induced dissociation analysis of peptides by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry through 3-sulfobenzoic acid succinimidyl ester labeling

The sulfonation reagent, a succinimidyl ester of 3-sulfobenzoic acid, has been synthesized for effective peptide sequencing. It is capable of incorporating an additional mobile proton into the peptide backbone, thus, facilitating efficient collision-induced dissociation. This reagent is easily and inexpensively prepared in short time. Tandem mass spectra of the guanidinated and reagent-sulfonated peptides consist mainly of the y-ion series with higher intensities than those observed for solely guanidinated peptides. These enhanced tandem MS attributes significantly improved MASCOT total-ion scores, thus, allowing more confident peptide sequencing. This derivatization was also very effective for the analysis of tryptic digest of human blood serum proteins separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. When used in LC-MALDI/MS/MS format, this type of derivatization does not adversely affect chromatographic efficiencies.