engleski

Database and data analysis application for ganglioside characterization by mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry

Background: Gangliosides as important building blocks of animal cell membranes serve as determinants in cellular recognition and cell-to-cell communication but also reflect abnormalities in cell architecture due to different pathophysiological events. Objective: In order to enable higher throughput and to facilitate the characterization of gangliosides by MS and tandem MS techniques, a database and data analysis application have been developed. Results: In silico developed database (~ 148000 gangliosides) considers the high diversity of ceramide compositions, sialic acid structures as well as possible modifications of standard ganglioside structures. Data analysis application enables correlation of MS and(or) low-energy tandem MS spectra with structures in the database. Tandem MS application simplifies tandem MS ion search by exploiting the fact that ganglioside fragmentation follows reverse biosynthetic pathway and accordingly uses MS ion database for matching tandem MS spectra. Validation conducted on GD1a standard as well as on complex mixture of native gangliosides isolated from human brain tissue demonstrated agreement with previous studies. Conclusion: Plain, fast and automated routine for characterization of gangliosides described here could facilitate and improve mass spectrometric analysis of complex mixtures in variety of tissues and pathological samples where it is known that distinctive changes in ganglioside composition occur.

glycosphingolipid identification; database; tandem mass spectrometry

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