APPLICATIONS OF MASS-SPECTROMETRY TO BIOO RGANIC CHEMISTRY

This review describes modern mass spectrometric techniques which make it possible to apply to highly polar and large biomolecules. In recent years, the use of mass spectrometry has dramatically expanded in bioc hemical and medical fields. Significant developments in these techniqu es have been established by ESI/MS (electrospray ionization mass spect rometry) and MALDI-TOF/MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectremetry). ESI can detect weak interactions s uch as cyclodextrin inclusion complexes, enzyme-substrate complexes, d ouble stranded DNA and its intercalation with a ligand. It is expected to be a powerful tool for study of molecular recognition at the picom olar level. ESI can also be easily interfaced with liquid chromatograp hy (LC/MS). On-line LC/MS is widely applicable for mixture analysis. M ALDI-TOF provides extremely high sensitivity Such as sub picomolar lev el analysis. PSD-MS (post source decay-mass spectrometry) gives struct ural information, which is a technique similar to CID-MS/MS with extre mely high sensitivity.