Performance Assessment of a 125 Human Plasma Peptide Mixture Stored at Room Temperature for Multiple Reaction Monitoring-Mass Spectrometry

Claudia Gaither; Robert Popp; Sophia P Borchers; Kjartan Skarphedinsson; Finnur F Eiriksson; Margrét Thorsteinsdóttir; Yassene Mohammed; Christoph H Borchers

doi:10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00249

Performance Assessment of a 125 Human Plasma Peptide Mixture Stored at Room Temperature for Multiple Reaction Monitoring-Mass Spectrometry

J Proteome Res. 2021 Sep 3;20(9):4292-4302. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00249. Epub 2021 Jul 16.

Authors

Claudia Gaither¹, Robert Popp¹, Sophia P Borchers¹, Kjartan Skarphedinsson^{2

3}, Finnur F Eiriksson^{2

3}, Margrét Thorsteinsdóttir^{2

3}, Yassene Mohammed^{4

5

6}, Christoph H Borchers^{7

8

6}

Affiliations

¹ MRM Proteomics Inc., Montreal, Quebec H2X 3X8, Canada.
² Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iceland, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland.
³ ArcticMass Ltd., 102 Reykjavik, Iceland.
⁴ University of Victoria-Genome British Columbia Proteomics Centre, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8Z 7X8, Canada.
⁵ Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden 2333 ZA, The Netherlands.
⁶ Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow 121205, Russia.
⁷ Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada.
⁸ Segal Cancer Proteomics Centre, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada.

PMID: 34270269
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00249

Abstract

Synthetic peptides are a critical requirement for the development and application of targeted mass spectrometry (MS)-based assays for the quantitation of proteins from biological matrices. Transporting synthetic peptides on dry ice from one laboratory to another is costly and often difficult because of country-specific import and export regulations. Therefore, in this study, we assessed the impact of leaving a lyophilized mixture consisting of 125 peptides at room temperature for up to 20 days, and we assessed the effect on the quantitative performance of multiple reaction monitoring-MS (MRM-MS) assays. The findings suggest that there are no significant differences in the MRM-MS results for the time points assessed in this study (up to 20 days). All the calibration curves and quality control (QC) samples met the acceptance criteria for precision and accuracy (raw data are available via the public MS data repository PanoramaWeb, identifier: /MRM Proteomics/2020_BAK125_RT). The number of endogenous proteins quantifiable across five plasma samples was consistently between 87 and 99 out of 125 for all time points. Moreover, the coefficients of variation (CVs) calculated for the majority of peptide concentrations across all samples and time points were <5%. In addition, a lyophilized peptide mixture was transported from Canada to Iceland without dry ice. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the quantitative performance, with the determined concentrations of most proteins in the samples falling within 30% between the analyses performed on the same three plasma samples in Iceland and those in Canada. Overall, a comparison of the results obtained in Canada and in Iceland indicated that the peptides were stable under the conditions tested and also indicated that shipping lyophilized peptide mixtures without dry ice, but in the presence of sufficient desiccant material, could be a feasible option in cases where transport difficulties may arise or dry-ice sublimation may occur.

Keywords: internal standards; mass spectrometry; multiple reaction monitoring (MRM); peptide; proteomics; stability; targeted proteomics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Mass Spectrometry
Peptides*
Proteins
Proteomics*
Temperature

Substances

Peptides
Proteins