Book review
Applied Electrospray Mass Spectrometry
By Birendra N. Pramanik, A.K. Ganguly and Michael L. Gross (Editors). Pp. 464. New York. Marcel Dekker. 2002. Price: £128 (hardcover). ISBN 0824706188.
Chapter 1 opens with a good account of the development of electrospray ionisation (ESI), including all the related techniques. A full and very clear discussion of the various theories of ionisation is also included. The chapter goes on to discuss the merits of the various source designs and set-ups available. This includes full descriptions of the newest developments of the technique in the areas of nanospray, lab-on-a-chip and multiplex sources.
The chapter also discusses the processes of ion formation, including the formation of singly and multiply charged ions, non-covalent adduct formation and electrochemical ionisation. The last three sections of the chapter cover the basics of mass spectrometry, including a discussion of the coupling of ESI to all the major types of modern mass spectrometer. Issues regarding instrument set-up, including calibration, resolution and mass-accuracy, are also covered. The chapter concludes with a section on data processing. Overall, I would suggest that this chapter is a must read for any person considering carrying out any work relying on ESI-MS to any degree.
Chapter 2 of the book covers an in-depth overview of the development of nanospray ESI, especially with regard to LC/MS and CE/MS. On the whole, I would say this chapter has a more specialist appeal than the previous chapter. However, nano-ESI has become established as the technique of choice in many applications, so it is essential for it to be covered to this level of detail in this book. The rest of the book covers the application of ESI-MS to the analysis of various compound types.
Chapters 3–5 cover the characterisation of pharmaceuticals and natural products, combinatorial chemistry and drug metabolism. In the last few years, the analysis of natural products in the fields of pharmaceutical development, toxicology and biodegradation has taken off and ESI-MS (coupled with HPLC) is the technique of choice. Chapter 3 briefly covers the analysis of natural products. Although the examples given are fairly diverse, the description does seem to be a bit too brief. However, one example, fragmentation by sequential MS/MS (MSn) is followed for six stages, which clearly exemplifies the power of multistage MS/MS. Chapter 4 covers combinatorial chemistry. It clearly sets out the powerful application of new multiplex ESI sources for rapid throughput sample screening. There is also a good discussion of HPLC-MS and accurate mass analysis for rapid identification of novel analogues and derivatives.
The rest of the book covers the various aspects of biological mass spectrometry. This is the area where ESI-MS has really come into its own. Chapter 6 covers ESI-MS of peptides and proteins and serves as an introduction to the following chapters. The chapter overviews the analysis of intact proteins and protein mixtures along with the role of proteomics, especially in the fields of protein sequencing, structure determination and studies of non-covalent complexes. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the structural analysis of glycoproteins and on quantitative proteomics, respectively. Chapter 9 overviews the study of non-covalent complexes by ESI-MS, especially with regard to protein–ligand, protein–protein and drug–DNA complexes. Chapter 10 covers H/D exchange and protein structure determination. The final chapter covers the application of micro-ESI to the analysis of neuropeptides and drugs.
Overall, this book covers a broad range of the modern applications of ESI-MS. It manages to successfully combine good historical and technical overviews of ESI with the modern state-of-the-art application of the technique in nearly all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. The main thing I found lacking was the lack of coverage of inorganic mass spectrometry. This is especially surprising considering the recent development of energy dependent ESI-MS for the structural analysis of complex inorganic systems. This aside, I found this a very good book, generally well written and structured. The level of the science would suit the general scientific community and not just the mass spectrometry specialist—little previous knowledge of mass spectrometry is required.
Paul Gates
Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
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