Electron Capture Dissociation for Discovery Top-Down Proteomics of Peptides and Small Proteins on Chromatographic Time Scales

Bottom-up proteomics introduces proteoform ambiguity due to the loss of connectivity between peptides and their original proteoforms. Top-down proteomics (TDP) removes the ambiguity through the direct identification and characterization of intact proteoforms and their respective post-translational modifications (PTM). Electron capture dissociation (ECD) is an efficient and gentle peptide and protein fragmentation strategy that can be used for both bottom-up and top-down approaches. Here, we used an Agilent 6550 Q-TOF mass spectrometer retrofitted with an e-MSion ECD cell. Top-down sequencing capabilities of the cell were evaluated by sequencing of intact peptides and proteins on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) time scales. Amyloid beta 1-40 (Aβ40) was first tested due to its pathophysiological role in Alzheimer’s disease and served as our large peptide standard. We sequenced Aβ40 via reverse-phase HPLC-MS and achieved 95% sequence coverage on chromatographic time scales utilizing a data-dependent acquisition (DDA)-based method. Acetone-precipitated protein extracts from human brain were then separated by HPLC and analyzed with a DDA method, which identified 16 proteoforms between 2 and 17 kDa with sequence coverage ranging from 7 to 90% based on proteoform size and composition. In addition to proteoform identification, ECD fragmentation distinguished multiple isoaspartate modifications from aspartate, as well as accurately differentiating leucine from isoleucine residues directly from the human brain sample. Here, we observed isoaspartate within a thymosin beta-4 proteoform. Additionally, we demonstrated the differentiation of leucine and isoleucine within a subunit of ubiquitin. This study advances the application of LC-Q-TOF instrumentation for discovery-based top-down proteomics utilizing ECD as enabled by the e-MSion ECD cell.