Design and application of hydrophilic bimetallic metal-organic framework magnetic nanoparticles for rapid capture of exosomes

Functional materials with good biocompatibility have been widely used in the study of genomics, proteomics and disease diagnosis, which has improved the progress of life science. In this paper, the material not only exhibited a strong affinity to the phosphate groups on the exosomal membrane due to the coexistence of Zr–O clusters and Ti4+, but also owned great hydrophilicity to reduce non-specific adsorption of contaminated proteins, achieving the separation and purification of exosomes from complex biosamples. The model exosomes extracted by ultracentrifugation (UC) were used to evaluate the feasibility of Fe3O4@UiO-66-NH2@PA-Ti4+ capturing exosomes. The process of Fe3O4@UiO-66-NH2@PA-Ti4+ capturing exosomes was simple to operate with a high recovery rate (97.3%) within a short time (5 min). Then Fe3O4@UiO-66-NH2@PA-Ti4+ was further applied to capture exosomes in media and urine followed by the downstream proteomics analysis. 348 and 284 exosomal proteins were identified for cell medium and urine, respectively. This work shows great potential of the material for subsequent function research of disease-related exosomes by separating exosomes rapidly and efficiently. Based on the interaction between Zr–O cluster/Ti4+ and lipid bilayer of the exosome membranes, a hydrophilic bimetal magnetic MOF composite (denoted as Fe3O4@UiO-66-NH2@PA-Ti4+) was synthesized and applied to selective capture of exosomes. [Display omitted] •A hydrophilic bimetallic magnetic MOF composite Fe3O4@UiO-66-NH2@PA-Ti4+ has been synthesized.•The material exhibited a strong affinity for the exosomal membrane due to the coexistence of Zr–O clusters and Ti4+.•The prepared hydrophilic material achieved high recovery rate for exosomes within few minutes.