2003 Fred Beamish Award Lecture — Exploring the dynamics of biological systems by mass spectrometry

Abstract

This review describes the use of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) in conjunction with on-line rapid mixing techniques. This combination, termed "time-resolved" ESI-MS, provides a powerful approach for studying solution-phase reactions on timescales as short as a few milliseconds. Of particular interest is the application of this technique for monitoring protein folding reactions. Time-resolved ESI-MS can provide detailed information on structural changes of the polypeptide chain, while at the same time probing the occurrence of noncovalent ligand–protein interactions. Especially when used in combination with hydrogen–deuterium pulse labeling, these measurements yield valuable structural information on short-lived folding intermediates. Similar approaches can be used to monitor the dynamics of proteins under equilibrium conditions. Another important application of time-resolved ESI-MS are mechanistic studies on enzyme-catalyzed processes. These reactions can be monitored under presteady-state conditions, without requiring artificial chromophoric substrates or radioactive labeling. We also discuss the use of ESI-MS for monitoring noncovalent ligand–protein interactions by diffusion measurements. In contrast to conventional MS-based techniques, this approach does not rely on the preservation of noncovalent interactions in the gas phase. It appears that diffusion measurements by ESI-MS could become an interesting alternative to existing methods for the high throughput screening of compound libraries in the context of drug discovery.Key words: reaction intermediate, rapid mixing, kinetics, protein conformation, protein function.