Laser spray mass spectrometry; a promising tool for the analysis of stability of biological macromolecules in solution

摘要

Laser spray, developed by Hiraoka et al [1], has been applied to study the biophysical characters of biomolecules in solution. It has been identified that laser spray induces prompt thermal heating of the sample solution, resulting in immediate denaturation of biological molecules. This is a great advantage of laser spray that can provide information on structural changes of biological molecules in the solution-phase. We have employed laser spray for the analysis of stabilities for biological molecules, such as double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), DNA-protein [2] and DNA-drug complexes, and found that their stability can systematically be characterized by controlling the laser power. This paper demonstrates the results of laser spray experiments focused on dsDNA and DNA-drug complexes.