Preparation of a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography material by sequential electrostatic deposition of layers of polyethyleneimine and hyaluronic acid for enrichment of glycopeptides

A hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) material with application in glycoproteomics was obtained by sequential deposition of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and hyaluronic acid (HA) on a negatively charged substrate by means of electrostatic self-assembly. This kind of surface modification endows the material with excellent hydrophilicity and warrants efficient glycopeptides enrichment. The feasibility of this enrichment was verified by using dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSNs) and magnetic graphene oxide (MagG) as negatively charged substrates for PEI and HA adhesion. The two final products (DMSNs@PEI@HA and MagG@PEI@HA) exhibit high enrichment selectivity (molar ratios of IgG and BSA digests = 1:500 and 1:1000), sensitivity (detection limit, 2 fmol/μL), recovery (>90%) and enrichment capacity (300 mg/g). When using DMSNs@PEI@HA, 419 N-glycopeptides derived from 105 glycoproteins were identified. When using MagG@PEI@HA, 376 N-glycopeptides derived from 102 glycoproteins were identified, both from a 2 μL serum sample. This is better than by methods described in previous reports. Graphical abstract Schematic representation of hydrophilic modification of negatively charged nanomaterial substrates by electrostatic self-assembly techniques to obtain hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) materials for enrichment of N-glycopeptides.