Impurity determination for hepcidin by liquid chromatography-high resolution and ion mobility mass spectrometry for the value assignment of candidate primary calibrators.

In metrology institutes, the state-of-the-art for purity analysis of peptides/proteins mainly addresses short and unfolded peptides. Important developments are anticipated for the characterization of nonlinear peptides or proteins. Hepcidin 1-25 is an interesting model system because this small protein contains four disulfide bridges with a particular connectivity that is difficult to reproduce and could induce a bias in quantification. Hepcidin 1-25 is involved in iron-related disorders and anemia, in an inflammatory context, and its clinical relevance in neurodegenerative disorders is under investigation. It is also an emerging biomarker. Recent inter-laboratory studies showed a need for standardization of hepcidin assay and the need to produce certified reference materials. This paper discusses two hepcidin standards from different synthesis pathways that have been characterized by high-resolution mass spectrometry and ion mobility mass spectrometry.