DIA-SIFT: A Precursor and Product Ion Filter for Accurate Stable Isotope Data-Independent Acquisition Proteomics

Anal Chem. 2018 Aug 7;90(15):8722-8726. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b01618. Epub 2018 Jul 19.

Abstract

Quantitative mass spectrometry-based protein profiling is widely used to measure protein levels across different treatments or disease states, yet current mass spectrometry acquisition methods present distinct limitations. While data-independent acquisition (DIA) bypasses the stochastic nature of data-dependent acquisition (DDA), fragment spectra derived from DIA are often complex and challenging to deconvolve. In-line ion mobility separation (IMS) adds an additional dimension to increase peak capacity for more efficient product ion assignment. As a similar strategy to sequential window acquisition methods (SWATH), IMS-enabled DIA methods rival DDA methods for protein annotation. Here we evaluate IMS-DIA quantitative accuracy using stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC). Since SILAC analysis doubles the sample complexity, we find that IMS-DIA analysis is not sufficiently accurate for sensitive quantitation. However, SILAC precursor pairs share common retention and drift times, and both species cofragment to yield multiple quantifiable isotopic y-ion peak pairs. Since y-ion SILAC ratios are intrinsic for each quantified precursor, combined MS1 and y-ion ratio analysis significantly increases the total number of measurements. With increased sampling, we present DIA-SIFT ( SILAC Intrinsic Filtering Tool), a simple statistical algorithm to identify and eliminate poorly quantified MS1 and/or MS2 events. DIA-SIFT combines both MS1 and y-ion ratios, removes outliers, and provides more accurate and precise quantitation (<15% CV) without removing any proteins from the final analysis. Overall, pooled MS1 and MS2 quantitation increases sampling in IMS-DIA SILAC analyses for accurate and precise quantitation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acids / analysis*
  • Cell Culture Techniques / methods
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Isotope Labeling / methods
  • Mass Spectrometry / methods*
  • Proteome / analysis*
  • Proteomics / methods*
  • Software

Substances

  • Amino Acids
  • Proteome