DETECTION VIA LASER-DESORPTION AND MASS-SPECTROMETRY OF MULTIPLEX ELECTROPHORE-LABELED ALBUMIN

Albumin was reacted with a mixture of six electrophore N-hydroxysuccin imide esters, each of which possessed an interior glycolketo linkage, The purpose of this linkage is to release the attached electrophore as a ketone when heated, due to a thermal retro-aldol reaction, The mult iplex electrophore-labeled albumin was detected as a dried spot deposi ted on a polyimide membrane by laser desorption/capillary collection ( of the released ketone electrophores)/off-line gas chromatography/elec tron capture-mass spectrometry, This encourages further study of such electrophore labels in immunoassays and related techniques, where ther e is a need to make advances in multi-analyte detection, (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.