PNNL

Abstract

Ion Mobility Spectrometry–Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (IMS-TOFMS) has been increasingly used in analysis of complex biological samples. A major challenge is to transform IMS-TOFMS to a high-sensitivity high-throughput platform for e.g. proteomics applications. In this work, we have developed and integrated three advanced technologies, enabling (1) efficient ion accumulation in the ion funnel trap prior to IMS separation, (2) multiplexing (MP) of ion packet introduction into the IMS drift tube and (3) signal detection with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), into the IMS-TOFMS system for the high-throughput analysis of highly complex proteolytic digests of e.g. blood plasma. To better address variable sample complexity, we have additionally developed and rigorously evaluated a new dynamic MP approach that ensures correlation of the analyzer performance with an ion source function, and provides the improved dynamic range and sensitivity. The MP IMS-TOF MS instrument has been shown to reliably detect peptides at a concentration of 1 nM in a highly complex matrix, as well as to provide a four orders of magnitude dynamic range and a mass measurement accuracy of better than 5 ppm. When matched against human blood plasma database, the detected IMS-TOF features yielded ~ 700 unique peptide identifications at a false discovery rate (FDR) of ~ 7.5 %. Accounting for IMS information gave rise to a projected FDR of ~ 4 %. Signal reproducibility was found to be greater than 80 %, while the variations in the number of unique peptide identifications were