Characterization of sulfur mustard induced structural modifications in human hemoglobin by liquid...

In this paper we describe the use of tandem mass spectrometry to identify modified sites in human hemoglobin after in vitro exposure to bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide (sulfur mustard). Globin isolated from human whole blood which had been exposed to sulfur mustard was degraded with trypsin, and the digests were analyzed by micro LC/MS. Alkylated tryptic fragments (alpha-T1, alpha-T4, alpha-T6, alpha-T9, beta-T1, beta-T9, beta-T10, beta-T11, and beta-T10-S-S-beta-T12) could be tentatively assigned upon comparison with a digest from nonexposed globin. Subsequent tandem mass spectrometry of these peptides allowed unambiguous assignment of 5 specific modified residues: alpha-Val-1, alpha-His-20, beta-Val-1, beta-His-77, and beta-His-97. The results demonstrate the usefulness of microbore LC in combination with tandem mass spectrometry for the structural determination of chemically modified peptides and proteins.