Chip-based nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry of brain gangliosides

In the past few years, a considerable effort was invested in interfacing mass spectrometry (MS) to microfluidics-based systems for electrospray ionization (ESI). Since its first introduction in biological mass spectrometry, chip-based ESI demonstrated a high potential to discover novel structures of biomarker value. Therefore, recently, microfluidics for electrospray in conjunction with advanced MS instruments able to perform multistage fragmentation were introduced also in glycolipid research. This review is focused on the strategies, which allowed a successful application of chip technology for ganglioside mapping and sequencing by ESI MS and tandem MS (MS/MS). The first part of the review is dedicated to the progress of MS methods in brain ganglioside research, which culminated with the introduction of two types of microfluidic devices: the NanoMate robot and a polymer microchip for electrospray. In the second part a systematic description of most relevant results obtained by using MS in combination with the two chip systems is presented. Chip-based ESI accomplishments for determination of ganglioside expression and structure in normal brain regions and brain pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases and primary brain tumors are described together with some considerations upon the perspectives of microfluidics-MS to be routinely introduced in biomedical investigation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.