Nano-gold in time-of-flight mass spectrometry of biological samples

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Authors

KOLÁŘOVÁ Lenka KUČERA Lukáš PROKEŠ Lubomír VAŇHARA Petr HAMPL Aleš HAVEL Josef

Year of publication 2016
Type Conference abstract
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Description The use of gold nano-particles (Au-NP) in science and technology is permanently increasing. Due to their unique physico-chemical properties, Au-NP are highly suitable for mass spectrometry (MS) of complex bio-molecules or intact cells and tissues as both calibrants and matrices. Au-NP are generally produced mostly by reduction of Au (III) with a redox agent. In the current work we demonstrate and discuss our recent results on use of Au-NP in MS of cells and tissues. 1) Internal/external calibration in MS: precise calibration in MS is an essential prerequisite of standard measurements. The use of Au clusters generated from various Au-NP provides a reliable tool for calibration in time-of-flight MS. The Au is monoisotopic, thus the determination of accurate mass is straightforward and fast compared to common calibration standards like peptides/proteins etc. 2) Use of Au-NP as matrix: the Au-NP (e.g. in the form of flower-like Au-NP) enhance the ionization of complex biomolecules. This enhancement is presumably due to SALDI (Surface Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization) or NALDI (Nano-particles Assisted LDI) effects. Even the combination of classical MALDI matrix with Au-NP offers significant advantages as it was recently reported [1]. 3) Au-NP in MS analysis of intact cells: gold is highly biocompatible; Au-NP can be easily absorbed by endocytosis to cell cytoplasm and increase the signal intensity of peptides and proteins during MS analysis. 4) Tissue imaging: similarly to Au-NP-mediated intact-cell MS, treatment of tissue sections with Au-NP-enriched matrices positively affects the overall quality of mass spectra and improves the tissue MS analysis. Concluding, the use of Au-NP brings new and exciting possibilities in MS of biomolecules.

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