Bioparticle ionization with pressure controlled discharge for mass spectrometry

摘要

A novel system and method for charge-monitoring mass spectrometry is provided. The mass spectrometer can be used to measure the mass of one or more analytes having masses in the range of about a few Daltons to more than about 1015 Daltons. The invention can be used for rapid mass distribution measurements. For example, the system and method can be used to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells when their mass distributions are different.

主权项

1. A method for performinga charge-monitoring mass spectrometry of analyte bioparticles, the method comprising:
a) preparing the analyte bioparticles by chemical fixation; b) vaporizing and ionizing the analyte bioparticles by laser desorption from a desorption plate into a pressure controlled discharge to create analyte bioparticle ions in the presence of a buffer gas while applying a radiofrequency voltage of over 1000 V peak amplitude to a mass analyzer, thereby generating the pressure controlled discharge between the desorption plate and the mass analyzer that are held in the same chamber that contains the buffer gas, wherein the chamber is held at a pressure of the buffer gas from 10 to 100 mTorr, and wherein the pressure controlled discharge is adjacent to the mass analyzer; c) determining the mass to charge ratio of the analyte bioparticle ions in the mass analyzer; and d) detecting the charge of the analyte bioparticle ions using a charge detector.