Glutathione-Functionalized Magnetic Covalent Organic Framework Microspheres with Size Exclusion for Endogenous Glycopeptide Recognition in Human Saliva

Endogenous glycopeptides have been confirmed to play a significant role in multifarious pathological and physiological processes. The low abundance of endogenous glycopeptides and abundant interferents (e.g., large-size proteins and heteropeptides) in complex biological matrices render the direct analysis of endogenous glycopeptides difficult. Reported here is a novel glutathione-functionalized magnetic covalent organic framework microsphere (denoted as MCNC@COF@GSH) endowed with size-exclusion effect and strong hydrophilicity for selective and efficient enrichment of N-linked glycopeptides. The as-prepared MCNC@COF@GSH microspheres possessed fast magnetic responsiveness, regular porosity, large surface areas, and good hydrophilicity, resulting in remarkable performances in N-linked glycopeptide enrichment with low detection limit (0.01 fmol μL-1), high selectivity (1:5000, human immunoglobulin G (IgG) digests to bovine serum albumin digests), excellent size-exclusion effect (IgG digests/IgG/bovine serum albumin (BSA), 1:500:500), and reusability (at least five times). More excitingly, 143 endogenous N-linked glycopeptides were clearly identified from 10 μL sample of human saliva treated with the MCNC@COF@GSH microspheres, which is the unprecedented high efficiency in endogenous N-linked glycopeptide enrichment from human saliva. In addition to providing a strategy for versatile functionalization of magnetic covalent organic frameworks (COFs), this study may be used to develop application of endogenous glycoproteome analysis.