Application of Proteomic Workflows for the Identification of Biomarkers for Retrospective Verification of Sulfur Mustard Intoxication

The family of sulfur mustards as potent alkylating agents have been used as chemical warfare agents for over a century. The retrospective verification of exposure and, hence, the confirmation of alleged use of this agent remains a challenging task with high demand for resources in the identification, preparation, and analysis of potential specific biomarkers. We herein report a facile and high-throughput methodology demonstrated for biomedical samples using known proteomic workflows and implementing statistical models. Finally, the synthesis of four alkylated amino acid building blocks (Glu, Asp, Cys, His) and their implementation in four different representative peptide sequences is demonstrated.