Tandem mass spectrometry in metallomics and the involving role of ICP-MS detection: A review

• Modern trends and applications of MS/MS in the field of metallomics are discussed.
• Hyphenated chromatographic techniques with MS detection are discussed.
• We designate the role of ICP–MS in identification of metal species.
• Metal-binding biomolecules and metallo-DNA adducts are included in the review.
• Multidisciplinary approaches provide holistic investigations in bioanalysis.

Metallomics is a relatively new branch of omics with a growing interest. The study of metallomes is becoming more focused in certain metabolites and the screening of various categories of analytes using a robust analytical methodology is more than appealing. In this context, when dealing with the challenge of identifying a certain species or specify a particular molecular structure, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is a reliable tool. Moreover, MS/MS instrumentation is recommended in hyphenated chromatographic techniques with MS detection such as LC–MS, where primary molecular species suffer minor fragmentation (soft-ionization techniques). ICP–MS is widely used in metallomics with its main advantages being the provided high sensitivity and selectivity. Usually, analyzes utilize ICP–MS as the main detection. Its role in proteomics is significant as an alternating choice for protein and peptide quantifications.In this review, we discuss modern trends and applications of MS/MS in the important and growing field of metallomics. These reports concern the identification, characterization and determination of various metal species such as metalloproteins, metallo-DNA adducts, metal-labeled molecules and other metal binding biomolecules. Such assays also present new and interesting hyphenated instrumentation and novel sophisticated apparatus. In addition, we designate the role of ICP–MS in the mentioned contributions and in the same scope we highlight some general analytical strategies.

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