Phosphoproteome Research Research Articles

Preparation of high-efficiency titanium ion immobilized magnetic graphite nitride nanocomposite for phosphopeptide enrichment

BackgroundProtein phosphorylation has been implicated in life processes including molecular interaction, protein structure transformation, and malignant disease. An in-depth study of protein phosphorylation may provide vital information for the discovery of early biomarkers. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques have become an important method for phosphopeptide identification. Nevertheless, direct detection remains challenging because of the low ionization efficiency of phosphopeptides and serious interference from non-phosphopeptides. There is a great need for an efficient enrichment strategy to analyze protein phosphorylation prior to MS analysis. ResultsIn this study, a novel nanocomposite was prepared by introducing titanium ions into two-dimensional magnetic graphite nitride. The nanocomposite was combined with immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) and anion-exchange chromatography mechanisms for phosphoproteome research. The nanocomposite had the advantages of a large specific surface (412.9 m2 g−1), positive electricity (175.44 mV), and excellent magnetic property (35.7 emu g−1). Moreover, it presented satisfactory selectivity (α-casein:β-casein:bovine serum albumin = 1:1:5000), a low detection limit (0.02 fmol), great recyclability (10 cycles), and high recovery (92.8%). The nanocomposite demonstrated great practicability for phosphopeptides from non-fat milk, human serum, and saliva. Further, the nanocomposite was applied to enrich phosphopeptides from a more complicated specimen, A549 cell lysate. A total of 890 phosphopeptides mapping to 564 phosphoproteins were successfully detected with nano LC-MS. SignificanceWe successfully designed and developed an efficient analysis platform for phosphopeptides, which includes protein digestion, phosphopeptide enrichment, and MS detection. The MS-based enrichment platform was further used to analyze phosphopeptides from complicated bio-samples. This work paves the way for the design and preparation of graphite nitride-based IMAC materials for phosphoproteome analysis.

New insight into phosphoproteome research improves the in-depth understanding of honey bee biology

Protein phosphorylation is essential in a variety of biological activities. Notably, phosphoproteomics has opened new possibilities for honey bee biological study at the molecular and biochemical levels, considering the advancements in LC-MS/MS apparatus and computational analysis. This review extensively evaluated recent advances in honey bee biology utilizing phosphoproteomics methodologies in terms of progressive physiology, age polytheism, and biological changes in some organs, tissues, and cells. Furthermore, a comprehensive phosphoproteomic is necessary for new insight into honey bee biology, a better understanding of the research subject, and determining prospective future research areas.

Development of dual-ligand titanium (IV) hydrophilic network sorbent for highly selective enrichment of phosphopeptides

A hydrophilic metal-organic network based on Ti4+ and dual natural ligand, tannic acid (TA) and phytic acid (PA), has been developed to enrich phosphopeptides from complex bio-samples prior to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis. Due to the strong chelation ability of TA and PA, abundant Ti4+ can be immobilized in the material, forming hydrophilic network by one-step coordination-driven self-assembly approach. The sorbent, TA-Ti-PA@Fe3O4, exhibited satisfactory selectivity for the phosphopeptides in the tryptic digest of β-casein, and can eliminate the interference components in 1000-fold excess of bovine serum albumin. The adsorption capacity of the sorbents for phosphopeptides was up to 35.2 mg g−1 and the adsorbing equilibrium can be reached in 5 min. The adsorbing mechanism has been investigated and the results indicated that the Ti4+ in forms of [Ti(f-TA)(H2O)4]2+, [Ti(f-PA)(H2O)4]2+ and Ti(f-PA)2(H2O)2 may play an important role in the adsorption process. The sorbent of the TA-Ti-PA@Fe3O4 has been applied to enrichment of the phosphopeptides in tryptic digest of rat liver lysate, and 3408 phosphopeptides have been identified, while the numbers of the identified phosphopeptides were 2730 and 1217 when the sample was enriched by the commercial TiO2 and Fe3+-IMAC kit, respectively. This work provides a strategy to enrich phosphopeptides from complex samples and shows great potential application in phosphoproteome research.

A new Ti-based IMAC nanohybrid with high hydrophilicity and enhanced absorption capacity for the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides

Ti-based immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) nanomaterial has shown high potential in phosphoproteome mass-spectrometric (MS) analysis. However, the limited surface area and poor solubility will greatly restrict its use in phosphoproteome research. To overcome these two key drawbacks, a novel Ti-based IMAC nanomaterial was prepared by Ti-bonded β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) anchored on the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (denoted as COOH-CNTs-CD-Ti) and successfully applied as a biofunctional adsorbent for selectively enriching trace phosphopeptides. In the selective enrichment process, CNTs provided greater surface area for the absorption of phosphopeptides, while β-CD also offered a greater opportunity for the interaction between phosphopeptides and Ti4+. COOH-CNTs-CD-Ti with the aforementioned properities exhibited higher selectivity for phosphopeptides from the standard protein digests, the tryptic digests of nonfat milk and human serum, showing a great selective enrichment capability towards complex biological samples.

Affinity chromatography based phosphoproteome research on lung cancer cells and its application

磷酸化是蛋白质翻译后修饰的重要形式之一,其异常往往会导致细胞内信号通路的紊乱和疾病的发生。固定化金属离子亲和色谱(IMAC)是磷酸化肽段的高效富集技术,在磷酸化蛋白质组研究方面应用广泛。该研究以金属钛离子(Ti4+)螯合IMAC材料(Ti4+-IMAC)为载体,进行磷酸化肽段富集。比较了10 μm Ti4+-IMAC通过振荡法和固相萃取法(SPE)富集磷酸肽的效果,发现振荡法可以富集到更多的磷酸肽;对比了两种尺寸(10 μm和30 μm)Ti4+-IMAC在磷酸化肽段富集中的差异,发现小尺寸材料富集效果更佳。进一步采用优化的策略比较了不同转移能力肺癌细胞的磷酸化蛋白质组,免标记定量蛋白质组学结果表明,优化的Ti4+-IMAC方法可以从正常的肺成纤维细胞MRC5、低转移肺癌细胞95C和高转移肺癌细胞95D中分别鉴定到510、863和1108种磷酸化蛋白质,其中317种为3组所共有。该研究共鉴定到1268种磷酸化蛋白质上的7560个磷酸化位点,其中1130个为差异磷酸化位点,文献报道显示部分异常表达的激酶与癌症转移密切相关。通过生信对比分析发现,异常表达的磷酸化蛋白质主要与细胞侵袭、迁移和死亡等细胞迁移方面的功能有关。通过优化磷酸化肽富集策略,初步阐明了磷酸化蛋白质网络的异常与肺癌转移之间的相关性,该方法有望用于肺癌进展相关的磷酸化位点、磷酸化蛋白质及其信号通路研究。

Hydrophilic polydopamine-derived mesoporous channels for loading Ti(IV) ions for salivary phosphoproteome research

Salivary phosphoproteome holds great promise in clinic diagnosis. For profiling of salivary phosphoproteome, it is essential to develop efficient enrichment methods prior to mass spectrum (MS). Among developed enrichment strategies, immobilized metal ions affinity chromatography (IMAC) has exhibited outstanding performance. In this work, we report a coherent approach where polydopamine (PDA) is first utilized to form mesoporous structure through soft templating method, then chelated with Ti4+ to construct hydrophilic polydopamine-derived magnetic mesoporous nanocomposite (denoted Fe3O4@mPDA@Ti4+). In virtue of the merits including ordered mesoporous channels, appropriate superparamagnetism, and abundant Ti4+, the enrichment strategy based on Fe3O4@mPDA@Ti4+ combined with MS is employed for accurate identification of phosphopeptides in β-casein digest and human saliva. As expected, Fe3O4@mPDA@Ti4+ revealed a great selectivity (1:200) and a low detection limit (0.1 fmol μL−1) toward phosphopeptides. More importantly, the further successful capture of phosphopeptides from human saliva indicated the prominent potential of this method for seeking phosphopeptide biomarkers in further analysis.

Solvothermal Synthesis of Novel Magnetic Nickel Based Iron Oxide Nanocomposites for Selective Capture of Global- and Mono-Phosphopeptides.

A facile solvothermal method was developed for synthesis of magnetic nickel-based iron oxide nanocomposites (MNFOs) with different ratios of Ni2+ to Fe3+ for different reaction time. Two factors including dosage of Ni source and length of reaction were investigated for influence on the morphology and composition of MNFOs, as well as their distinct selectivity for different phosphopeptides. After thorough characterization, the possible formation mechanism of MNFOs was proposed. Very interestingly, MNFOs with Ni2+/Fe3+ ratios of 4:5 prepared for 8 h (MNFO-S) and for 24 h (MNFO-L) can selectively capture global- and monophosphopeptides at the fmol level with excellent enrichment performance. These two affinity probes have been exploited to isolate and enrich the phosphopeptides from human normal hepatic cells HL 7702 after exposure to atmospheric fine particulates (PM2.1), which revealed that the protein phosphorylation level was increased significantly in cells after stimulation by fine particulate matters. The findings could provide a new insight for the nickel-based affinity protocol to analyze the mutation of phosphopeptides during cellular signaling pathways in response to exogenous environment stimulation. Consequently, this present work proposed a promising strategy to isolate monophosphopeptides from global phosphopeptides for phosphoproteome research.

Magnetic microspheres modified with Ti(IV) and Nb(V) for enrichment of phosphopeptides.

Magnetic microspheres (Fe3O4) were coated with polydopamine (PDA) and loaded with the metal ions Ti(IV) and Nb(V) to give a material of type Fe3O4@PDA-Ti/Nb. It is shown to be useful for affinity chromatography and for enrichment of phosphopeptides from both standard protein solutions and real samples. For comparison, such microspheres loaded with single metal ions only (Fe3O4@PDA-Ti and Fe3O4@PDA-Nb) and their physical mixtures were also investigated under identical conditions. The binary metal ion-loaded magnetic microspheres display better enrichment efficiency than the single metal ion-loaded microspheres and their physical mixture. Both multiphosphopeptides and monophosphopeptides can be extracted. The Fe3O4@PDA-Ti/Nb microspheres exhibit ultra-high sensitivity (the lowest detection amount being 2 fmol) and selectivity at a low mass ratio such as in case of β-casein/BSA (1:1000). Graphical abstract Magnetic microspheres (Fe3O4) were coated with polydopamine (PDA) and loaded with the metal ions Ti(IV) and Nb(V) to give a material of type Fe3O4@PDA-Ti/Nb. Results showed its great potential as an affinity probe in phosphoproteome research due to rapid magnetic separation of phosphopeptides, ultrahigh sensitivity and selectivity, and remarkable reusability.

A novel IMAC platform – adenosine coupled functional magnetic microspheres for phosphoproteome research

Immobilized metal affinity chromatography is a powerful method for phosphopeptide enrichment.

Combined 15N-Labeling and TandemMOAC Quantifies Phosphorylation of MAP Kinase Substrates Downstream of MKK7 in Arabidopsis.

Reversible protein phosphorylation is a widespread posttranslational modification that plays a key role in eukaryotic signal transduction. Due to the dynamics of protein abundance, low stoichiometry and transient nature of protein phosphorylation, the detection and accurate quantification of substrate phosphorylation by protein kinases remains a challenge in phosphoproteome research. Here, we combine tandem metal-oxide affinity chromatography (tandemMOAC) with stable isotope 15N metabolic labeling for the measurement and accurate quantification of low abundant, transiently phosphorylated peptides by mass spectrometry. Since tandemMOAC is not biased toward the enrichment of acidophilic, basophilic, or proline-directed kinase substrates, the method is applicable to identify targets of all these three types of protein kinases. The MKK7-MPK3/6 module, for example, is involved in the regulation of plant development and plant basal and systemic immune responses, but little is known about downstream cascade components. Using our here described phosphoproteomics approach we identified several MPK substrates downstream of the MKK7-MPK3/6 phosphorylation cascade in Arabidopsis. The identification and validation of dynamin-related protein 2 as a novel phosphorylation substrate of the MKK7-MPK3/6 module establishes a novel link between MPK signaling and clathrin-mediated vesicle trafficking.

Dual-Functionalized Magnetic Metal–Organic Framework for Highly Specific Enrichment of Phosphopeptides

The highly specific enrichment of phosphoproteins and phosphopeptides from intricate biological systems is the precondition of in-depth phosphoproteome research. Herein, a novel dual-functionalized magnetic zirconium-based metal–organic framework (MOF) denoted as DFMMOF, with the purpose of combining the affinity of immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) and metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) has been successfully synthesized. The inherent Zr–O cluster of DFMMOF particles acted as MOAC and the immobilized titanium(IV) ions served for IMAC. The obtained DFMMOF exhibited rapid magnetic separation (within 5 s), large surface area (237.9 m2 g–1), high binding capacity (100 mg g–1), and good postenrichment recovery (84.8%). Thanks to the strong affinity, low detection sensitivity (5 fmol) and high selectivity (β-casein/BSA with a molar ratio of 1:1000) for phosphopeptide enrichment were obtained using DFMMOF as absorbent. Moreover, the effective identification of phosphopeptides from real...

Simple preparation of magnetic metal-organic frameworks composite as a “bait” for phosphoproteome research

Phosphospecific enrichment techniques and mass spectrometry (MS) are primary tools for comprehending the cellular phosphoproteome. In this work, a rational and extremely facile route to synthesize the magnetic metal-organic frameworks (mMOFs) was employed and the prepared composite was first utilized as a “bait” for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. Typically, the mMOFs was synthesized via electrostatic self-assembly between the negatively charged Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and positively charged MIL-101(Fe). The obtained Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) composite possessed well-defined structures, rough surface, highly specific surface area and excellent magnetic property. To demonstrate their ability for enrichment of phosphopeptides, we applied Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) as a “bait” to capture the phosphopeptides from standard protein digestion and practical samples. The enriched phosphopeptides were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). The MS results show that the Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) exhibits superior enrichment performance for phosphopeptides with low detectable concentration assessed to be 8 fmol, selectivity investigated to be 1:1000 using β-casein/bovine serum albumin mixture and enrichment recovery evaluated to be 89.8%. Based on these excellent properties, the prepared composite was used to enrich the phosphopeptides from tilapia eggs biological samples for the first time. A total number of 51 phosphorylation sites were identified from the digest of tilapia eggs proteins, suggesting the excellent potential of Fe3O4/MIL-101(Fe) composite in the practical application.

Spinel-type manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4) microspheres: A novel affinity probe for selective and fast enrichment of phosphopeptides

The spinel-type magnetic manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4) microspheres synthesized by simple solvothermal method were used as a novel adsorbent for selective enrichment and effective isolation of phosphopeptides. The uniform MnFe2O4 magnetic affinity microspheres (MAMSs) had a narrow particle size distribution between 250 and 260nm, and displayed superparamagnetism with a saturation magnetization value of 67.0emu/g. Comprehensively, the possible formation mechanism of MnFe2O4 microspheres with ferric and manganous sources as dual precursors was elucidated by comparison with those of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and MnOOH nanosheets respectively with either ferric or manganous source as single precursor. It was suggested that the spherical or sheet nanostructures could be achieved via secondary recrystallization or Ostwald ripening. The MnFe2O4 MAMSs probe exhibited excellent dispersibility in aqueous solution, and rapid magnetic separation within 15s, as well as good reusability. More importantly, MnFe2O4 was highly selective for phosphopeptides because of the strong coordination interaction between metal ions (Fe3+ and Mn2+) and phosphate groups of phosphopeptdies. This high specificity was demonstrated by effectively enriching phosphopeptides from digest mixture of β-casein and bovine serum albumin (BSA) with high content of non-phosphopeptides, and embodied further in phosphopeptides enrichment from non-fat milk digests and human serum. Consequently, the prepared MnFe2O4 affinity materials are expected to possess great potential in phosphoproteome research.

Development of immobilized Sn4+ affinity chromatography material for highly selective enrichment of phosphopeptides.

In this work, we first immobilized tin(IV) ion on polydopamine-coated magnetic graphene (magG@PDA) to synthesize Sn4+ -immobilized magG@PDA (magG@PDA-Sn4+ ) and successfully applied the material to highly selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. The material gathered the advantages of large surface area of graphene, superparamagnetism of Fe3 O4 , good hydrophilicity and biocompatibility of polydopamine, and strong interaction between Sn4+ and phosphopeptides. The enrichment performance of magG@PDA-Sn4+ toward phosphopeptides from digested β-casein at different concentrations, with and without added digested BSA was investigated and compared with magG@PDA-Ti4+ . The results showed high selectivity and sensitivity of the Sn4+ -IMAC material toward phosphopeptides, as good as the Ti4+ -IMAC material. Finally, magG@PDA-Sn4+ was applied to the analysis of endogenous phosphopeptides from a real sample, human saliva, with both MALDI-TOF MS and nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS. The results indicated that the as-synthesized Sn4+ -IMAC material not only has good enrichment performance, but also could serve as a supplement to the Ti4+ -IMAC material and expand the phosphopeptide coverage enriched by the single Ti4+ -IMAC material, demonstrating the broad application prospects of magG@PDA-Sn4+ in phosphoproteome research.

CoFe2O4–ZnO nanoparticles for rapid microwave‐assisted tryptic digestion of phosphoprotein and phosphopeptide analysis by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

Phosphorylation is a post-translational modification of proteins that plays very important role in a large number of biological processes. However, despite recent advancements in phosphoproteome research, large-scale detection and characterization of phosphopeptides by mass spectrometry (MS) is still a challenging task due to the low abundance of phosphopeptides and sub-stoichiometric nature of phosphorylation sites. On-particle microwave-assisted trypsin digestion of phosphoproteins and enrichment of phosphopeptides is an effective method for identification/characterization of phosphopeptides. Magnetic nanoparticles typically can absorb microwave radiation and generate heat in order to resolve complex phosphproteins and to enhance the digestion rate and capture the phosphopeptides on their modified surfaces. In this study, we used a cheap and efficient method for rapid microwave-assisted tryptic digestion of phosphoproteins and simultaneous enrichment of phosphopeptides using CoFe2 O4 -ZnO magnetic nanoparticles. Using this technique, the digestion time of phosphoproteins can be reduced and the phosphopeptides can be quickly analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). For the first time, we have applied CoFe2 O4 -ZnO magnetic nanoparticles for enrichment of phosphopeptides from standard phosphoproteins (β-casein and ovalbumin), complex samples (human serum and egg white) and a protein mixture of β-casein and BSA (1:100). Our results demonstrate that the capture efficiency of CoFe2 O4 -ZnO nanoparticles for β-casein and ovalbumin in MALDI-TOFMS is very high (detection limits 0.2 fmol and 20 fmol, respectively). The CoFe2 O4 -ZnO nanoparticles have high affinity for phosphopeptide enrichment for β-casein in complex mixtures with BSA at 1:10 and 1:100 molar ratios in the microwave within 30 s. Compared with other reported magnetic nanoparticles, the CoFe2 O4 -ZnO nanoparticles are easy to prepare and handle, and can save time in the phosphopeptide enrichment procedure, making these nanoparticle a good choice for highly sensitive phosphopeptide enrichment. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Designed synthesis of Graphene @titania @mesoporous silica hybrid material as size-exclusive metal oxide affinity chromatography platform for selective enrichment of endogenous phosphopeptides

In this work, a novel size-exclusive metal oxide affinity chromatography (SE-MOAC) platform was built for phosphoproteome research. The operation for preparing graphene @titania @mesoporous silica nanohybrids (denoted as G@TiO2@mSiO2) was facile and easy to conduct by grafting titania nanoparticles on polydopamine (PD)-covered graphene, following a layer of mesoporous silica was coated on the outermost layer. The G@TiO2@mSiO2 nanohybrids exhibited high sensitivity with a low detection limit of 5amol/μL (a total amount of 1fmol) and high selectivity for phosphopeptides at a mass ratio of phosphopeptides to non-phosphopeptides (1:1000). The size-exclusive capability of the nanohybrids were also demonstrated by enriching the phosphopeptides from the mixture of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA), α-casein, and β-casein digests with a high mass ratio (β-casein digests: α-casein: BSA, 1:500:500), which was attributed to the large surface area and ordered mesoporous channels. In addition, the G@TiO2@mSiO2 nanohybrids were employed to capture the endogenous phosphopeptides from human serum successfully.

Facile synthesis of gallium ions immobilized and adenosine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles with high selectivity for multi-phosphopeptides

Despite recent advances in phosphoproteome research, detection and characterization of multi-phosphopeptides have remained a challenge. Here we present a novel IMAC strategy for effective extracting multi-phosphopeptides from complex samples, through Ga3+ chelation to the adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP)-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (Ga3+-ATP-MNPs). The high specificity of Ga3+-ATP-MNPs was demonstrated by efficient enriching multi-phosphopeptides from the digest mixture of β-casein and BSA with molar ratio as low as 1:5000. Ga3+-ATP-MNPs were also successfully applied for the phosphoproteome analysis of rat liver mitochondria, resulting in the identification of 193 phosphopeptides with 331 phosphorylation sites from 158 phosphoproteins. In other words, 54.4% of the phosphopeptides trapped by Ga3+-ATP-MNPs were observed with more than one phosphorylated sites, resulting in significant improvement on the identification of peptides with multi-phosphorylated sites. The high specificity of Ga3+-ATP-MNPs towards multi-phosphopeptides may be due to the synergistic effect of the strong hydrophilic surface functionalized by ATP and the proper chelating strength provided by Ga3+. Moreover, the unique magnetic core of Ga3+-ATP-MNPs also facilitates the isolation process and on-plate enrichment for direct MALDI MS analysis with limit of detection as low as 30 amol. This new affinity-based protocol is expected to provide a powerful approach for characterizing multiple phosphorylation sites on proteins in complex and dilute analytes, which may be explored as complementary technique for improving the coverage of phosphoproteome.

Immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography ZipTip pipette tip with polydopamine modification and Ti4+ immobilization for selective enrichment and isolation of phosphopeptides

As an effective tool in protein analysis, mass spectroscopy (MS) has been widely used in identifying protein phosphorylation and phosphorylation sites. Because of the low abundance of phosphopeptides in protein digestion, isolation and enrichment of phosphopeptides prior to MS analysis is important for efficient phosphopeptides identification. In this work, we initially immobilized titanium ions on polydopamine (PDA)-modified ZipTip pipette tips (denoted as IMAC ZipTip pipette tip) for simple and quick enrichment of phosphopeptides. The preparation process of the novel ZipTip pipette tips is fast and economic since it only contains two simple steps both with mild conditions. The ability of modified ZipTip pipette tips for identifying phosphopeptides in complex biological samples was investigated. The unique ZipTip pipette tip not only exhibited superior ability in selectively capturing phosphopeptides from large amount of non-phosphopeptides, but also remarkably shortened the MS preparation and analysis time, making it an easy-to-use and efficient tool in phosphoproteome research.

Novel Ti4+-chelated magnetic nanostructured affinity microspheres containing N-methylene phosphonic chitosan for highly selective enrichment and rapid separation of phosphopeptides.

Magnetic composite particles immobilized with metal affinity ions show high potential in the phosphoproteome mass-spectrometric (MS) analysis. However, the preparation of this kind of material still suffers from a complicated synthesis procedure and high cost. In this work, the magnetic nanostructured composite microspheres (MPCS) incorporated into N-methylene phosphonic chitosan were first fabricated via a facile one-pot synthesis strategy and titanium ions (Ti4+) were subsequently immobilized onto the MPCS to form MPCS-Ti4+ affinity particles. The uniform spherical MPCS-Ti4+ affinity particles with abundant chelated titanium ions have a particle size distribution between 126 nm and 280 nm, and they display superparamagnetism with a saturation magnetization (Ms) value of 44.75 emu g-1. The amount of the immobilized Ti4+ ions was estimated to be 11.6 wt% by EDS. The MPCS-Ti4+ exhibited excellent dispersibility in aqueous solution, high affinity selectivity for phosphopeptides and quite fast magnetic separation within 10 s as well as good reusability. Thus, the prepared magnetic MPCS-Ti4+ nanostructured affinity materials will possess great potential in phosphoproteome research.

Designed Synthesis of Titania Nanoparticles Coated Hierarchially Ordered Macro/Mesoporous Silica for Selective Enrichment of Phosphopeptides

Metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) is a powerful technique in phosphoproteome research. However, the achievement of highly specific enrichment and sensitive detection of phosphopeptide by MOAC remains a big challenge since the lack of high specificity and large binding capacity of conventional MOAC materials. In this work, a new MOAC material, TiO2-coated hierarchically ordered macro/mesoporous silica (denoted as HOMMS@TiO2) composites, was prepared via a facile process. The HOMMS@TiO2 composites were demonstrated to have low limit of detection (8 fmol) and great specificity with a very rapid enrichment speed (within 1 min). These experimental results have demonstrated that the HOMMS@TiO2 exhibit great potential in phosphoproteome research.