Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for metrometallomics: The study of quantitative metalloproteins

Abstract

The emerging field of metrometallomics refers to the qualitative and quantitative measurement of metallic analytes in the metrological sciences. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has the merits of multi-elemental quantification with very low detection limits. It has been applied for the quantification of peptides and proteins by measuring the concentration of certain elements, which is a very important applications area in metrometallomics. This review showcases the application of ICP-MS on the quantification of metalloproteins through the quantification of protein-bound metal/metalloid elements, intrinsic metal/metalloid elements, or labeled metal/metalloid elements. The results of study also suggest that metrometallomics can be a useful tool in the development of certified reference materials of metalloproteins.