Amino Acid Chirality Analysis of Peptide Drugs (LC-MS)

Peptide drugs are bioactive molecules formed by multiple amino acids linked through peptide bonds. Typically, they consist of 10~100 amino acids with a relative molecular mass lower than 10000. The majority of peptide drugs stem from endogenous peptides or natural peptides, hence they have either no side effects or only minor side effects on the human body. When compared to protein drugs, peptide drugs have additional benefits such as superior stability, high purity, low production costs, and low immunogenicity. Along with the rapid development and maturity of peptide synthesis technology, peptide drugs have become the focus of biopharmaceutical research in recent years. Currently, peptide drugs have been widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors, autoimmune diseases, certain cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc., indicating a broad future application.

 

Peptide drugs are usually composed of L-type amino acids, while D-type amino acids are less commonly found in the body. The two types of amino acids have similar structures, but differ significantly in their stereostructure, leading to different effects on the body. The efficacy of peptide drugs is often related to their interaction with specific receptors or enzymes in the body, which are very sensitive to chirality. Therefore, if the chirality of the amino acids in the peptide drugs does not match the receptors or enzymes, the efficacy may be greatly affected.

 

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is a powerful analytical tool that combines the advantages of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. It plays a significant role in the analysis of amino acid chirality in peptide drugs. LC-MS can accurately determine the chiral configuration of amino acids. Through LC-MS detection, the peak area and height of each amino acid can be obtained, thereby calculating their relative content and chiral purity. The advantages of LC-MS method for the analysis of the amino acid chirality of peptide drugs are as follows: firstly, LC-MS method has high resolution and sensitivity, allowing accurate determination of the chiral configuration of amino acids in peptide drugs. Secondly, LC-MS can analyze multiple amino acids at the same time, improving the efficiency and throughput of the analysis. Additionally, with the application of mass spectrometry technology, LC-MS can provide additional information about the structure and sequence of amino acids, contributing to the quality control and structure confirmation of peptide drugs.

 

MtoZ Biolabs provides you with efficient and accurate one-stop amino acid chirality analysis services based on high-throughput mass spectrometry platform analysis. Simply tell us your experimental objectives and send your samples, MtoZ Biolabs will handle all subsequent projects, including sample processing, on-machine analysis, data analysis, and project reports.