Nanoelectrospray ionization coupled to a linear charge detection array ion trap spectrometer for single viral particles analysis

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel charge detection mass spectrometer integrated with nanoelectrospray ionization, enabling high-throughput, single-particle analysis of viruses with improved measurement capabilities.

Contribution

The work presents a new stand-alone charge detection mass spectrometer design combining an eight-tube detector array with conical electrodes for single viral particle analysis.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated measurement of human norovirus-like particles.

Achieved high-throughput analysis of individual virus particles.

Validated the instrument's performance with adenovirus Ad(5).

Abstract

This work presents the implementation of a new charge detection mass spectrometer (CDMS) design that operates in a stand-alone mode, thanks to its integration with nanoelectrospray ionization. More specifically, this innovative CDMS consists of a linear charge detection array ion trap spectrometer that combines an eight-tube detector array with conical electrodes. This configuration allows for recording data in both transmission mode (linear array) and ion trapping mode (ConeArrayTrap), which enables the measurement of time-of-flight (related to the mass-to-charge ratio) along with the charge of individual ions. As a result, this design supports high-throughput metrology of viruses at the single-particle level. The devices and geometry of the instrument have been developed based on ion optics simulations. The performance of the current instrument is demonstrated using human norovirus-like particles (hNoVLP) and Adenovirus Ad(5) (hAdV5).