The low-energy collision-induced dissociation product ion spectra of protonated beta-blockers reveal an analogy to fragmentation behaviour under electron ionisation conditions Beta-blockers are a class of pharmaceutical compounds used in the therapy of numerous cardiovascular disorders including the treatment of hypertension, [1,2] for cardioprotection post-myocardial infarction, [3] in the management of angina pectoris [4] and for the regulation of heart rate in patients with cardioarrhythmia.[5] They are also used in the treatment of chronic kidney disease [6] and the relief of intraocular pressure in glaucoma sufferers. [7] A recent study in our laboratories involved the investigation of the lowenergy collision-induced dissociation (CID) pathways of protonated beta-blockers on a quadrupole ion trap (QIT) mass spectrometer and revealed an interesting analogy to fragmentation behaviour under electron ionisation (EI) conditions. Fourteen beta-blockers (acebutolol, alprenolol, atenolol, betaxolol, carteolol, celiprolol, esmolol, levobunolol, metoprolol, nadolol, oxprenolol, pindolol, propranolol and timolol) were provided by Pfizer Global Research and Development (Sandwich, UK). Solutions were prepared at 10 mg mL À1 in either liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry grade methanol and analytical grade formic acid [99.9:0.1, v/v] (Fisher Scientific UK Ltd., Loughborough, UK) or in >99.5% deuterated methanol and 99.5% deuterated formic acid [99.9:0.1, v/v] (Apollo Scientific Limited, Stockport, UK). 'In-time' low-energy CID product ion spectra of either the protonated or fully exchanged, deuterated molecule (i.e. all acidic protons exchanged for deuterons) for each compound were acquired using a LCQ Classic QIT mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, CA, USA). Positive ion electrospray ionisation was performed by infusing the solutions directly into the ion source at a constant flow rate of 3 mL min
À1. Nitrogen was used as the sheath and auxiliary gas. The ion source conditions were: sheath gas, 25 arbitrary units; auxiliary gas, 0 arbitrary units; spray voltage, 4.5 kV; capillary voltage, 10 V; capillary temperature, 160 C; tube lens offset, À5 V. Lowenergy CID product ion spectra were acquired using an isolation width of 6 m/z units (1 m/z unit for the solution-phase H/D exchange experiments to ensure only the fully exchanged, deteurated molecule was selected to undergo CID), an activation Q of 0.250 and an activation time of 30 ms. The normalised collision energy was set to either 50% or 60% to cause complete dissociation of the precursor ion.[8] Acquisitions were performed for 20 scans with WideBand activation both on and off.[8] Helium was used as the buffer gas. Data acquisition was performed using XCalibur version 1.2 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, CA, USA).A common structural feature of beta-blockers is the oxypropanolamine side chain, which can either terminate in an isopropyl or a tert-butyl group.[9] The compounds in this study were split into two sets (Compound sets 1 and 2, Figs...