Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 11, Issue 20, 2005

Recent developments in the field of mass spectrometry, especially in the instrumentation (MALDI and ESI ion sources) and electronic improvements in the past decade have placed this technique at the forefront of many biological applications. Recent studies performed these last years on the proteome have demonstrated the usefulness of this technology. The combination of mass spectrometry with classical biochemical meth Read More

Mass spectrometry is now a well established and powerful method for analysing the structure of biomolecules and more recently their non-covalent interactions. It is based on two soft ionization techniques, electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), which allow to produce biomolecule ions in gas phase with a very high efficiency for a subsequent analysis in the mass analyser. The hig Read More

Thanks to the development of matrix assisted laser desorption/ionisation (MALDI), laser desorption based mass spectrometry became an essential method for the analysis of biomolecules. This review will discuss the various surface modifications used in combination with laser desorption mass spectrometry and their application for the analysis of peptides and proteins. In the first hand, some modified surfaces are designed to e Read More

During the last years, mass spectrometry has revolutionised protein biochemistry and has advanced to a superior tool for the identification and detailed analysis of peptides and proteins. The high throughput allowed by some mass spectrometry platforms has enabled the important step from analysis of individual proteins to proteomics. Recently, an additional field of mass spectrometry applications has emerged - namely Read More

Mass spectrometers measure an intrinsic property (i.e., mass) of a molecule, which makes it an ideal platform for nucleic acid analysis. Importantly, the unparalleled capabilities of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry further extend its usefulness for nucleic acid analysis. The beginning of the twenty-first century has been marked with notable advances in the field of FT-ICR mass spectrometry anal Read More

Proteomics is closely associated with the modifications of the gene product such as the post-translational events that yield functionally active gene products. Among these, glycosylation represents a critically important posttranslational modification and is a target for proteomic research. Glycan moieties are involved in a wide variety of intracellular, cell-cell and cell-matrix recognition events. This is why understanding how glycos Read More

The family of endocannabinoids (i.e., the endogenous agonists of cannabinoid receptors) contains several polyunsaturated fatty acid amides such as anandamide (AEA) and oleamide but also esters such as 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). These compounds are the subject of growing interest in pharmacology for their multiple therapeutic potentials. Unfortunately, they are rapidly inactivated by enzymatic hydrolysis, which preve Read More