Facile one-pot synthesis of a aptamer-based organic-silica hybrid monolithic capillary column by "thiol-ene" click chemistry for detection of enantiomers of chemotherapeutic anthracyclines.

In the current study, we developed a facile strategy for the one-pot synthesis of an aptamer-based organic-silica hybrid monolithic capillary column. A 5'-SH-modified aptamer, specifically targeting doxorubicin, was covalently modified in the hybrid silica monolithic column by a sol-gel method combined with "thiol-ene" click reaction. The prepared monolithic column had good stability and permeability, large specific surface, and showed excellent selectivity towards chemotherapeutic anthracyclines of doxorubicin and epirubicin. In addition, the enantiomers of doxorubicin and epirubicin can be easily separated by aptamer-based affinity monolithic capillary liquid chromatography. Furthermore, doxorubicin and epirubicin spiked in serum and urine were also successfully determined, which suggested that the complex biological matrix had a negligible effect on the detection of doxorubicin and epirubicin. Finally, we quantified the concentration of epirubicin in the serum of breast cancer patients treated with epirubicin by intravenous injection. The developed analytical method is cost-effective and rapid, and biological samples can be directly analyzed without any tedious sample pretreatment, which is extremely useful for monitoring medicines in serum and urine for pharmacokinetic studies.

Rapid and high-throughput determination of endogenous cytokinins in Oryza sativa by bare Fe3O4 nanoparticles-based magnetic solid-phase extraction.

A rapid method was developed for determination of endogenous cytokinins (CKs) based on magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). We illustrated the hydrophilic character of bare Fe3O4 nanoparticles that were directly used as a MSPE sorbent for rapid enrichment of endogenous CKs from complex plant extract. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of bare Fe3O4 directly used as efficient extraction sorbent to enrich target CKs based on hydrophilic interaction. Under the optimized conditions, a rapid, sensitive and high-throughput method for the determination of 16 CKs was established by combination of MSPE with UPLC-MS/MS. Good linearity was obtained with correlation coefficients (r) from 0.9902 to 0.9998. The limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) ranged from 1.2 pg mL(-1) to 391.3 pg mL(-1) and 4.1 pg mL(-1) to 1304.3 pg mL(-1), respectively. 16 CKs could be successfully determined in spiked sample with 80.6-117.3% recoveries and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 16.6%. Finally, 10 endogenous CKs were successfully quantified in 50mg Oryza sativa sample using the developed MSPE-UPLC-MS/MS method.

A simple sample preparation approach based on hydrophilic solid-phase extraction coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for determination of endogenous cytokinins.

Cytokinins (CKs), a vital family of phytohormones, play important roles in the regulation of shoot and root development. However, the quantification of CKs in plant samples is frequently affected by the complex plant matrix. In the current study, we developed a simple, rapid and efficient hydrophilic interaction chromatography-solid phase extraction (HILIC-SPE) method for CKs purification. CKs were extracted by acetonitrile (ACN) followed by HILIC-SPE (silica as sorbents) purification. The extraction solution of plant samples could be directly applied to HILIC-SPE without solvent evaporation step, which simplified the analysis process. Moreover, with HILIC chromatographic retention mechanism, the hydrophobic co-extracted impurities were efficiently removed. Subsequently, CKs were separated by RPLC, orthogonal to the HILIC pretreatment process, and detected by tandem mass spectrometry. The method exhibits high specificity and recovery yield (>77.0%). Good linearities were obtained for all eight CKs ranging from 0.002 to 100ngmL(-1) with correlation coefficients (r) higher than 0.9927. The limits of detection (LODs, signal/noise=5) for the CKs were between 1.0 and 12.4pgmL(-1). Reproducibility of the method was evaluated by intra-day and inter-day measurements and the results showed that relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 10.5%. Employing this method, we successfully quantified six CKs in 20mg Oryza sativa leaves and the method was also successfully applied to Brassica napus (flower and leaves).