Although metals are essential for the molecular machineries of life, systematic methods for discovering metal–small molecule complexes from biological samples are limited. Recently, researchers describe a two-step native electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry method, in which post-column pH adjustment and metal infusion are combined with ion identity molecular networking, a rule-based data analysis workflow. This method enabled the identification of metal-binding compounds in complex samples based on defined mass (m/z) offsets of ion species with the same chromatographic profiles. As this native electrospray metabolomics approach is suited to the use of any liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry system to explore the binding of any metal, this method has the potential to become an essential strategy for elucidating metal-binding molecules in biology.

@Allegra T. Aron, et al.

Source from:

Aron AT, Petras D, Schmid R, et al. Native mass spectrometry-based metabolomics identifies metal-binding compounds. Nature Chemistry 2022; 14: 100–109. DOI: 10.1038/s41557-021-00803-1.