ANALYZING THE COMPLEXATION OF AMINO-ACIDS AND PEPTIDES WITH BETA-CYCLODEXTRIN USING ELECTROSPRAY-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

The formation of non-covalently bound inclusion complexes between beta-cyclodextrin and peptides containing aromatic acid residues has been confirmed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. This preliminary study has indicated that phenylalanine and tryptophan residues can form 1 : 1 complexes with beta-cyclodextrin whereas no evidence for such a complex could be found for tyrosine residues. Bradykinin, which contains two phenylalanine residues, formed both 1 : 1 and 1: 2 complexes.