文摘
Although structural isomers may yield indistinguishable ion mobility (IM) arrival times and similar fragment ions in tandem mass spectrometry (MS), it is demonstrated that post-IM/collision-induced dissociation MS (post-IM/CID MS) combined with chemometrics can enable independent study of the IM-overlapped isomers. The new approach allowed us to investigate the propensity of selected b type fragment ions from AlaAlaAlaHisAlaAlaAla-NH2 (AAA(His)AAA) heptapeptide to form different isomers. Principle component analysis (PCA) of the unresolved post-IM/CID profiles indicated the presence of two different isomer types for b4 +, b5 +, and b6 + and a single isomer type for b7 + fragments of AAA(His)AAA. We employed a simple-to-use interactive self-modeling mixture analysis (SIMPLISMA) to calculate the total IM profiles and CID mass spectra of b fragment isomers. The deconvoluted CID mass spectra showed discernible fragmentation patterns for the two isomers of b4 +, b5 +, and b6 + fragments. Under our experimental conditions, calculated percentages of the “cyclic-isomers (at the 95?% confidence level for n = 3) for b4 +, b5 +, and b6 + were 61 (± 5) %, 36 (± 5) %, and 48 (± 2) %, respectively. Results from the SIMPLISMA deconvolution of b5 + species resembled the CID MS patterns of fully resolved IM profiles for the two b5 + isomers. The “cyclic-isomers for each of the two-component b fragment ions were less susceptible to ion fragmentation than their “linear-counterparts. ?/div>