Identification of deoxynucleoside-polyaromatic hydrocarbon adducts by capillary zone electrophoresis-continuous flow-fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry

Capillary zone electrophoresis coupled to continuous flow-fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry is shown to have utility for the detection and characterization of adducts formed by the covalent attachment of four polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and amino-PAH compounds to deoxyguanosine. Normal scanning provided structural information for a 1.3 ng injection of a model adduct, while 1.3 ng of each of a mixture of adducts was sufficient to determine their molecular weights by monitoring the constant neutral loss of deoxyribose. Exploitation of this loss in the multiple reaction monitoring mode resulted in the detection of low picogram amounts of target adducts in mixtures.