Study on fragmentation behavior of taxoids by tandem mass spectrometry

We have studied the fragmentation behavior of positive and negative ions of taxol and 6/8/6 type taxoids, the influence of different substituents on fragmentation, and the correlativity between fragmentation patterns and structure by MS/MS technique with different ionization methods such as FAB-MS, ESI-MS, etc. We have also investigated in detail the fragmentation of various molecular-related ions, such as M+H]⁺, M+Na]⁺ and M-H]⁻ ions, and the formation pathways of characteristic fragment ions. It has been found that there exists some competing reaction between the loss of C-13 side chain and decomposition by loss of acetic acid. In addition, by comparing CID spectra obtained with low- and high-energy collision, it is seen that CID-MS/MS with low-energy collision is more suitable for the study of the structural analysis of small molecules and drug metabolites. The experimental results demonstrate that MS/MS spectra can reflect more effectively the slight difference of structure between the related compounds and their structural characteristic features than MS spectra, and can also provide a beneficial analysis basis for these kinds of compounds.