Quantitative bioanalysis of peptides by liquid chromatography coupled to (tandem) mass spectrometry

With the growing interest for peptides and proteins in different kinds of fields, e.g. pharmacy, clinical diagnostics or food industry, the quantification of these compounds is becoming more and more important. Quantitative analysis of these analytes in biological matrices, however, remains a challenging task, due to the complexity of both the matrix and the analytical characteristics of these large bio-molecules. Liquid chromatography coupled to (tandem) mass spectrometry (LC–MS or LC–MS/MS) is the preferred analytical technique for peptide analysis as it allows very selective and sensitive measurements. This article summarizes the numerous published LC–MS applications for the quantification of peptides in biological matrices and discusses all different issues herewith concerned. This includes chromatographic aspects as the selection and effects of mobile and stationary phase, flow rate and temperature, as well as mass spectrometric characteristics such as ionization and detection modes, collision-induced dissociation of peptides and factors influencing the mass spectrometric response. For both techniques the main properties of all described methods have been listed, creating a comprehensive overview with the peptide analytes divided into different classes. Likewise, all other issues concerned with quantitative bioanalysis have been evaluated in detail, including extensive consideration of several different applied sample pre-treatment techniques and reflection of subjects as the choice for an internal standard and assay validation. Furthermore, several issues which are of particular interest for the quantitative bioanalysis of peptide compounds like peptide adsorption and degradation have been regarded.