Mass spectrometry of oligopeptides in the presence of large amounts of alkali halides using desorption/ionization induced by neutral cluster impact.

Oligopeptides in the presence of large amounts of salt were desorbed and ionized using desorption/ionization induced by neutral clusters (DINeC) for further analysis by means of mass spectrometry (MS). Using oligopeptides in alkali halide solutions as a model system, DINeC was shown to yield clear and fragmentation free mass spectra of the biomolecules even from environments with a large excess of salt. The results were traced back to a phase separation between salt and biomolecules during sample preparation. The ratio between alkali metal complexes [M+A](+) and bare biomolecules [M+H](+) was controlled using different preparation schemes. DINeC was applied to the products of a tryptic digest of bovine serum albumin in the presence of sodium chloride; the results of a mass fingerprint analysis did not show a major difference for the spectra with and without salt in the original solution. The metal-ion/peptide interaction was further investigated by means of tandem-MS.