Development of an automated on-line pepsin digestion–liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry configuration for the rapid analysis of protein adducts of chemical warfare agents

Rapid monitoring and retrospective verification are key issues in protection against and non-proliferation of chemical warfare agents (CWA). Such monitoring and verification are adequately accomplished by the analysis of persistent protein adducts of these agents. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) is the tool of choice in the analysis of such protein adducts, but the overall experimental procedure is quite elaborate. Therefore, an automated on-line pepsin digestion–LC–MS configuration has been developed for the rapid determination of CWA protein adducts. The utility of this configuration is demonstrated by the analysis of specific adducts of sarin and sulfur mustard to human butyryl cholinesterase and human serum albumin, respectively.