Abstract

The potential of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS) and its complementarity to soft-ionization MS techniques are discussed in the context of the analysis for biomolecules. ICP MS offers detection limits in the attomolar range regardless of the molecular environment of the target element. The sensitivity is hardly affected by the sample matrix, chromatographic mobile phase, or co-eluted compounds. The abundance sensitivity over six decades and the linear dynamic range over nine decades make the simultaneous multiisotopic analysis routinely possible. The manuscript discusses the state- of-the-art of ICP MS for the detection of proteins in gel electrophoresis and of peptides in 2D HPLC. The possibilities of quantification of the degree of some post-translational modifications are highlighted. Attention is also paid to the role of ICP MS in protein quantification via metal-coded labelling and to the use of differentially labelled antibodies for the multiplexed biomarker analysis. The key role of ICP MS in the emerging area of metallomics is briefly discussed.

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Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1255/ejms.1048
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