Quality Control of Synthetic Peptides using the MALDI-8030 Dual Polarity Benchtop MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer

User Benefits

- Easy, simple, negative ion quality control of peptides on affordable benchtop MALDI-TOF - Useful for peptides with labile functional groups, thus facilitating the detection of the intact species - Mass spectra are cleaner and easier to interpret since no detection of salt adducts

Introduction

Synthetic peptides are nowadays increasingly used in the fields of biochemistry, immunology and medicine. They fulfil a number of purposes, such as cancer diagnosis and treatment, drug and delivery systems development, epitope mapping, production of antibodies, and vaccine design. The synthesis of peptides is a stepwise process which involves a reaction between the activated carboxylic group of one amino acid and the amino group of another, thus creating the so- called peptide bond. The crude peptide product obtained typically contains impurities (e.g., side-products formed during synthesis), hence requiring a purification step. Within the manufacturing process of synthetic peptides, quality control (QC) plays a critical role in providing high purity products. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry is widely used to confirm the molecular identity of the final peptide as well as its purity. Here, we present the dual polarity MALDI-8030 benchtop linear mass spectrometer for the QC analysis of synthetic peptides in positive and negative ion modes. The benefits of the negative ionisation mode are demonstrated in terms of: i) preserving the integrity of species carrying labile functional groups; ii) simplifying the interpretation of the mass spectra through elimination of salt adduct interferences.

April 5, 2022 GMT