Facile Preparation of Core–Shell Magnetic Metal–Organic Framework Nanoparticles for the Selective Capture of Phosphopeptides

In regard to the phosphoproteome, highly specific and efficient capture of heteroideous kinds of phosphopeptides from intricate biological sample attaches great significance to comprehensive and in-depth phosphorylated proteomics research. However, until now, it has been a challenge. In this study, a new-fashioned porous immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) material was designed and fabricated to promote the selectivity and detection limit for phosphopeptides by covering a metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) shell onto Fe3O4 nanoparticles, taking advantage of layer-by-layer method (the synthesized nanoparticle denoted as Fe3O4@MIL-100 (Fe)). The thick layer renders the nanoparticles with perfect hydrophilic character, super large surface area, large immobilization of the Fe3+ ions and the special porous structure. Specifically, the as-synthesized MOF-decorated magnetic nanoparticles own an ultra large surface area which is up to 168.66 m2 g–1 as well as two appropriate pore sizes of 1.93 and 3.91 nm with a narrow grain-size distribution and rapid separation under the magnetic circumstance. The unique features vested the synthesized nanoparticles an excellent ability for phosphopeptides enrichment with high selectivity for β-casein (molar ratio of β-casein/BSA, 1:500), large enrichment capacity (60 mg g–1), low detection limit (0.5 fmol), excellent phosphopeptides recovery (above 84.47%), fine size-exclusion of high molecular weight proteins, good reusability, and desirable batch-to-batch repeatability. Furthermore, encouraged by the experimental results, we successfully performed the as-prepared porous IMAC nanoparticle in the specific capture of phosphopeptides from the human serum (both the healthy and unhealthy) and nonfat milk, which proves itself to be a good candidate for the enrichment and detection of the low-abundant phosphopeptides from complicated biological samples.