Detection of new spider toxins from a Nephilengys borbonica venom gland using on-line mu-column HPLC continuous flow (FRIT) FAB LC/MS and MS/MS.

Spider venom glands store various novel neurotoxic acylpolyamines which present potent and irreversible inhibition of the glutamatergic synapses. We have developed a new highly sensitive analytical method to detect and characterize structures of those neurotoxins stored in a single venom gland using micro bore column high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-continuous flow FRIT fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (HPLC-FAB/MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) array detection system. The high-energy collision induced dissociation (CID) spectra of sodium cationized spider toxins produced very strong structurally informative product ions which afforded the location of nitrogen atoms and the connectivity of methylene units within the polyamines. This methodology permitted detection of 40 amino acid containing acylpolyamines in the venom of Nephilengys borbonica from which structures of only five compounds were previously known.