System and method for characterizing metabolites using hydrogen/deuterium exchange

摘要

A system and method for performing hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange in an electrospray ionization (ESI) source is described. The system includes a liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer (LC-MS), which is equipped with an ESI source that provides for introduction of a sheath liquid. The resulting system employs deuterated solvent, such as deuterium oxide, as the sheath liquid, which allows H/D exchange experiments to be performed on-line. This directly provides information for determining the number and position of exchangeable hydrogens, aiding in the elucidation of the structures of drug metabolites.