High Sensitivity CZE-ESI-MS/MS: Method Development and Applications

Proteomic studies are usually performed using LC-MS, UPLC-MS through out the past decades. However, electrophoresis has emerged as a high-resolution separation method that can be coupled to various detection method for a thorough analysis of the proteome of any biological system. The Dovichi group uses capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) coupled to a mass spectrometry through electrospray ionization (ESI) to perform bottom-up analyses of complex proteomes.

In this work, we demonstrate the reproducible detection of two fragment ions from injection of 1 zmol (600 ions) of angiotensin onto a CZE system coupled to a Q-Exactive HF using our electrokinetically-pumped nanoelectrospray interface. The methods described herein establish the state of the art detection limits of capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry.