Abstract:
To explore the fragmentation reactions of non-covalent complex, the complex of glutathione(GSH) and amino acids were chosen to investigate the main factors affecting the fragmentation process. The secondary tandem mass spectrometry(MS
2) results indicated that collision gas thickness(CGT) and collision energy are two important conditions affecting the fragmentation pathway of glutathione complex. When the CGT maintained at 50×10
13 molecules/cm
2, increasing collision energy from 5 eV to 80 eV, the dissociation of His-GSH complex took place, leading to the formation of His+H
+ and GSH+H
+. However, it could be seen that no further dissociation of GSH occurred, and the fragmentation of noncovalent bond was the main pathway of the complex. When CGT rose up to 75×10
13 molecules/cm
2, the covalent bond also began to dissociate, leading to the formation of y
2 and b
2 for glutathione. Such phenomena could be also observed in Lys-GSH complex. To confirm the fragment ion y
2 of glutathione, MS
3 was also performed and y
1 was detected.