Characterizing closely spaced, complex disulfide bond patterns in peptides and proteins by liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

Identifying the Cys residues involved in disulfide linkages of peptides and proteins that contain complex disulfide bond patterns is a significant analytical challenge. This is especially true when the Cys residues involved in the disulfide bonds are closely spaced in the primary sequence. Peptides and proteins that contain free Cys residues located near disulfide bonds present the additional problem of disulfide shuffling via the thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. In this paper, we report a convenient method to identify complex disulfide patterns in peptides and proteins using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) in combination with partial reduction by tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP). The method was validated using well-characterized peptides and proteins including endothelin, insulin, alpha-conotoxin SI and immunoglobulin G (IgG2a, mouse). Peptide or protein digests were treated with TCEP in the presence of an alkylation reagent, maleimide-biotin (M-biotin) or N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), followed by complete reduction with dithiothreitol and alkylation by iodoacetamide (IAM). Subsequently, peptides that contained alkylated Cys were analyzed by capillary LC/ESI-MS/MS to determine which Cys residues were modified with M-biotin/NEM or IAM. The presence of the alkylating reagent (M-biotin or NEM) during TCEP reduction was found to minimize the occurrence of the thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. A critical feature of the method is the stepwise reduction of the disulfide bonds and the orderly, sequential use of specific alkylating reagents.