Fishing antitumor ingredients by G-quadruplex affinity from herbal extract on a three-phase-laminar-flow microfluidic chip

A new method for fishing antitumor ingredients by G-quadruplex recognition from Macleaya cordata seeds extracts was established using a three-phase-laminar-flow-chip (TPL chip). The TPL chip integrated the separation of drugs from the complex ingredients and organic solvent extraction, simplifying pretreatment processes and reducing reagents and time. In addition, the chip method showed a lower false negative result, owing to the gentle membrane-free filtration process based on diffusion separation in microchannel. Four ligands with high content in alkaloids of Macleaya cordata seeds were selected, those are chelerythrine (CHE), sanguinarine (SAN), protopine (PRO), and allocryptopine (ALL), which demonstrated affinity with G-quadruplex and were potential for antitumor. [Display omitted] •A new sample pretreatment strategy for active reagent screening.•An integration of separation and extraction for sample preparation using a three phase laminar flow chip.•A novel method for selection of antitumor ingredients by G-quadruplex affinity from herbal extract.