Researchers in Russia have sidestepped tandem mass spectrometry in favor of chromatography-ion cyclotron resonance MS in order to improve sensitivity by avoiding the fragmentation stage.

They have built a database of 1381 accurate mass and time tags for a wide range of peptide and protein biomarkers for disease and have developed software that allows the chromatography-MS results to reveal the presence of these biomarkers even in the early stages of disease. They have also identified several proteins that have not been detected in urine before.

• Accurate mass tag retention time database for urine proteome analysis by chromatography-mass spectrometry
  I. A. Agron, D. M. Avtonomov, A. S. Kononikhin, I. A. Popov, S. A. Moshkovskii, E. N. Nikolaev, 
  Biochem. (Moscow) 2010, 75 (5), 636 – 641.
  DOI: 10.1134/S0006297910050147