PNNL

Abstract

Selected reaction monitoring-mass spectrometry (SRM-MS) is an emerging technology for high throughput targeted protein quantification and verification in biological and biomarker discovery studies; however, the cost associated with the use of stable isotope labeled synthetic peptides as internal standards is prohibitive for quantitatively screening large numbers of candidate proteins as often required in the pre-verification phase of biomarker discovery. Herein we present the proof-of-concept experiments of using an 18O-labeled “universal” reference as comprehensive internal standards for quantitative SRM-MS analysis. With an 18O-labeled whole proteome sample as reference, every peptide of interest will have its own corresponding heavy isotope labeled internal standard, thus providing an ideal approach for quantitative screening of a large number of candidates using SRM-MS. Our results showed that the 18O incorporation efficiency using a recently improved protocol was >99.5% for most peptides investigated, a level comparable to 13C/15N labeled synthetic peptides in terms of heavy isotope incorporation. The accuracy, reproducibility, and linear dynamic range of quantification were further assessed based on known ratios of standard proteins spiked into mouse plasma with an 18O-labeled mouse plasma reference. A dynamic range of four orders of magnitude in relative concentration was obtained with high reproducibility (i.e., coefficient of variance