Lizhen Qiao

Facile synthesis of boronate-decorated polyethyleneimine-grafted hybrid magnetic nanoparticles for the highly selective enrichment of modified nucleosides and ribosylated metabolites.

Ribosylated metabolites, especially modified nucleosides, have been extensively evaluated as cancer-related biomarkers. Boronate adsorbents are considered to be promising materials for extracting them from complex matrices. However, the enrichment of ribosylated metabolites in low abundance is still a challenge due to the limited capacity and selectivity of the existing boronate adsorbents. In this study, a novel type of magnetic nanoparticles named Fe3O4@SiO2@PEI-FPBA was synthesized by grafting polyethyleneimine (PEI) onto the surface of Fe3O4@SiO2 before modification by boronate groups. The high density of the amino groups on the PEI chains supplied a large number of binding sites for boronate groups. Thus, the adsorption capacity (1.34 ± 0.024 mg/g) of the nanoparticles, which is 6- to 7-fold higher than that of analogous materials, was greatly improved. The unreacted secondary amines and tertiary amines of the PEI enhanced the aqueous solubility of the nanoparticles, which could efficiently reduce nonspecific adsorption. The nanoparticles were able to capture 1,2 cis-diol nucleosides from 1000-fold interferences. Moreover, the flexible chains of PEI were favorable for effective enrichment and quick equilibration (<2 min). Finally, 60 ribose conjugates were enriched from human urine using the nanoparticles. Among them, 43 were identified to be nucleosides and other ribosylated metabolites. Nine low abundance modified nucleosides were detected for the first time. In conclusion, Fe3O4@SiO2@PEI-FPBA is an attractive candidate material for the highly selective enrichment of 1,2-cis-diol compounds.

A novel stop-flow two-dimensional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for lipid analysis.

A novel on-line two dimensional liquid chromatography (2D LC) based on stop-flow mode coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) method was established to separate lipids in human plasma. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) in the first dimension and reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP LC) in the second dimension were used to separate the lipids into six fractions based on their polar head groups and further into peaks based on aliphatic chains, respectively. A new stop-flow interface with a trap column and an extra make-up flow was designed to construct this system and trap the components eluted from the first dimension. Moreover, the same length of analytical columns and similar flow rates were used in the first and second dimensions. Therefore, the new stop-flow 2D LC system can avoid the sensitivity decrease caused by the dilution effect, which is the shortcoming of comprehensive 2D LC. Three hundred and seventy-two lipids were identified from plasma extract using this 2D LC coupled with ESI-MS in positive mode, and 88 more lipids were detected than one-dimensional RP LC analysis. Peak capacity of this stop-flow 2D LC was 415, which is similar to that of comprehensive 2D LC. The linearity, repeatability and sensitivity of this method were satisfactory, which demonstrated that this method was also suitable for quantitative analysis. All these results indicated that this on-line 2D LC method is powerful for qualitative and quantitative analysis of complex lipids.

Preparation and evaluation of a novel hybrid monolithic column based on pentafluorobenzyl imidazolium bromide ionic liquid.

To develop a novel hybrid monolithic column based on pentafluorobenzyl imidazolium bromide ionic liquid, a new ionic liquid monomer was synthesized from 1-vinylimidazole and pentafluorobenzyl bromide. By employing a facile one-step copolymerization of polyhedral-oligomeric-silsesquioxane-type (POSS) cross-linking agent and the home-made ionic liquid monomer, the hybrid monolithic columns were in situ fabricated in fused-silica capillary. The morphology of monolithic column was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the chemical composition was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and elemental analysis. Excellent mechanical stability and slight swelling propensity were exhibited which was ascribed to the rigid hybrid monolithic skeleton. Reproducibility results of run-to-run, column-to-column, batch-to-batch and day-to-day were investigated and the RSDs were less than 0.46%, 1.84%, 3.96% and 3.17%, respectively. The mixed-mode retention mechanism with hydrophobic interaction, π-π stacking, ion-exchange, electrostatic interaction and dipole-dipole interaction was explored systematically using analytes with different structure types. Satisfied separation capability and column efficiency were achieved for the analysis of small molecular compounds such as alkylbenzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nucleosides and halogenated compounds.

Recent development of ionic liquid stationary phases for liquid chromatography.

Based on their particular physicochemical characteristics, ionic liquids have been widely applied in many fields of analytical chemistry. Many types of ionic liquids were immobilized on a support like silica or monolith as stationary phases for liquid chromatography. Moreover, different approaches were developed to bond covalently ionic liquids onto the supporting materials. The obtained ionic liquid stationary phases show multi-mode mechanism including hydrophobic, hydrophilic, hydrogen bond, anion exchange, π-π, and dipole-dipole interactions. Therefore, they could be used in different chromatographic modes including ion-exchange, RPLC, NPLC and HILIC to separate various classes of compounds. This review mainly summarizes the immobilized patterns and types of ionic liquid stationary phases, their retention mechanisms and applications in the recent five years.

Synthesis of a new type of echinus-like Fe3O4@TiO2 core–shell-structured microspheres and their applications in selectively enriching phosphopeptides and removing phospholipids

Some compounds of low abundance in biological samples play important roles in bioprocesses. However, the detection of these compounds at inherently trace concentrations with interference from a complex matrix is difficult. New materials for sample pretreatment are essential for the removal of interferences and for selective enrichment. In this study, echinus-like Fe(3)O(4)@TiO(2) core-shell-structured microspheres (echinus-like microspheres) have been synthesized for the first time. Rutile phase TiO(2) nanorods with a length of approximately 300 nm and width of approximately 60 nm are arranged regularly on the surface of the microspheres. This novel type of material exhibited good selectivity and adsorption capacity toward phosphate-containing compounds. In proteomics research, the echinus-like microspheres were used to selectively enrich phosphopeptides from complex peptide mixtures. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) analysis showed that fourteen phosphopeptides were detected from α-casein tryptic digests after enrichment. Even in peptide mixtures that contained highly abundant nonphosphorylated peptides with interference from bovine serum albumin, these phospopeptides could still be selectively trapped with little nonspecific adsorption. In metabolomics studies, the echinus-like microspheres were further used to selectively remove phosphocholines (PCs) and lysophosphocholines (LPCs), which are the main matrix interferences for the detection of metabolites of low abundance in plasma. Liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to perform the metabolic profiling of plasma. The high concentrations of PCs and LPCs were effectively eliminated, and many endogenous metabolites of low abundance were enhanced or even observed for the first time. All of the results suggest that echinus-like microspheres have potential applications in proteomics and metabolomics to improve the detection sensitivity of important compounds.