Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry in proteomics, metabolomics and metallomics studies

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 simultaneous multi-isotopic 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 high-performance liquid chromatography. The possibilities of quantification to 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 labeling and to the use of differentially-labeled antibodies for the multiplexed biomarker analysis. The key role of ICP-MS in the emerging area of metallomics is briefly discussed.