Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Tania Guardado Alvarez

Song Jin

Ying Ge

Kyle Brown

The present invention provides photo-cleavable anionic surfactants, particularly 4-hexylphenylazosulfonate (Azo) and sodium 4-hexylphenylazosulfonate derivatives, which can be rapidly degraded upon UV irradiation, for top-down and bottom-up proteomics. These surfactants can effectively solubilize proteins and peptide fragments with performance comparable to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and are compatible with mass spectrometry analysis of the solubilized proteins and peptide fragments. Top-down proteomic studies using the present photo-cleavable anionic surfactants has allowed the detection of 100-fold more unique proteoforms as compared to controls and has enabled the solubilization of membrane proteins for comprehensive characterization of protein post-translational modifications. In addition, the present photo-cleavable anionic surfactants are also suitable for dissolving polypeptides in bottom-up proteomic experiments including extracellular matrix proteomics, and are suitable as a substitute for SDS in gel electrophoresis.

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Madison, WI, United States of America

Tania Guardado Alvarez