DMSO enhances electrospray response, boosting sensitivity of proteomic experiments

Area of Science:

• Proteomics
• Analytical Chemistry
• Mass Spectrometry

Background:

• Bottom-up proteomics relies on sensitive detection of peptides.
• Electrospray ionization (ESI) is a key technique for interfacing liquid chromatography (LC) with mass spectrometry (MS).
• Improving ESI efficiency can enhance the sensitivity of peptide and protein identification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of low percentages of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) on peptide electrospray ionization.
• To evaluate the impact of DMSO on protein identification sensitivity in bottom-up proteomics.
• To assess the practical implementation of this method in standard LC-MS/MS workflows.

Main Methods:

• Liquid chromatography (LC) solvents containing low percentages of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO).
• Analysis of peptides using electrospray ionization coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS).
• Comparison of protein identification results with and without DMSO in LC solvents.

Main Results:

• Low percentages of DMSO in LC solvents significantly enhance ESI of peptides.
• This enhancement leads to up to a tenfold increase in the sensitivity of protein identification.
• The method is easily implementable on standard LC-MS/MS systems.

Conclusions:

• Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is an effective additive for improving peptide ionization efficiency.
• The use of DMSO in LC solvents offers a cost-effective strategy to boost proteomics sensitivity.
• This simple modification provides a substantial improvement for bottom-up proteomics workflows.