Different electrospray tandem mass spectrometric approaches for rapid characterization of phospholipid classes of Curosurf, a natural pulmonary surfactant.

Curosurf is a pulmonary surfactant used in the treatment or prophylaxis of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. It contains low molecular weight hydrophobic apoproteins and a series of lipids including phosphatidylcholines, lisophosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, sphingomyelins, phosphatidylinositols, phosphatidylglycerols and phosphatidylserines. In the present work, a rapid method to qualitatively map the Curosurf phospholipid classes without prior derivatization or chromatographic separations is described. In particular, a series of specific electrospray tandem mass spectrometric (ES-MS/MS) experiments, i.e. product ion, precursor ion and neutral loss scans, were chosen on the basis of the chemical nature of each phospholipid class and then used to identify single components of the commercial suspension, directly infused into the ion source of the mass spectrometer. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.