Nanomaterial-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization for Mass Spectrometry-Based Biomedical Analysis

Abstract

Nanomaterials have been widely used to assist laser desorption ionization of biomolecules for mass spectrometry analysis. Compared with classical matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization, strategies based on nanomaterial-assisted ionization generate a clean background, which is of great benefit for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of small biomolecules, such as therapeutic and diagnostic molecules. As label-free platforms, they have successfully been used for high-throughput enzyme activity/inhibition monitoring and also for tissue imaging to map in situ the distribution of peptides, metabolites and drugs. In addition to widely used porous silicon nanomaterials, gold nanoparticles can be easily chemically modified by thiol-containing compounds, opening novel interesting perspectives. Such functionalized nanoparticles have been used both as probes to extract target molecules and as matrices to assist laser desorption ionization for developing new enzyme immunoassays or for studying DNA hybridization. More recently, semiconductor nanomaterials or quantum dots acting as photosensitive centers to induce in-source redox reactions for proteomics and to investigate biomolecule oxidation for metabolomics have been shown to offer new analytical strategies.

Keywords::

• gold nanoparticle
• ionization
• laser desorption
• mass spectrometry
• mass spectrometry imaging
• photo-oxidation/reduction
• porous-silicon
• titania

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors acknowledge funding provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation 200020-127142 and National Science Foundation of China 20925517. The authors have applied for patents in areas related to nanomaterial-assisted laser desorption ionization devices. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge funding provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation 200020-127142 and National Science Foundation of China 20925517. The authors have applied for patents in areas related to nanomaterial-assisted laser desorption ionization devices. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.