Selective Molecular Imprinting Isolation of a ß-Glucan from Plasma with Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF MS)

AbstractThe development of polysaccharide drugs requires a thorough understanding of their quantitative and pharmacokinetic properties. However, the complexity of biological samples presents a challenge for direct analysis using UHPLC-QTOF MS. Therefore, it is essential to establish a method for the selective enrichment of polysaccharides. In this study, we developed an efficient method for the quantitative determination of polysaccharides by integrating magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for sample pretreatment and UHPLC-QTOF MS for analysis. The MIPs were prepared using molecularly imprinted and boric acid affinity technologies, which combined the advantages of specific recognition and reversible binding to polysaccharides. The MIPs exhibited high dispersibility and uniform particle size, and adsorption experiments demonstrated their specific recognition of BG136, a polysaccharide with immunological activity. The proposed method was used for the purification and enrichment of BG136 in plasma with recoveries between 91.29% and 113.03%. This simple method demonstrated high selectivity, fast separation, and satisfactory recoveries providing an approach for polysaccharide determination with UHPLC-QTOF MS.Keywords: Boronic acidβ-glucan (BG136)molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs)selective extractionultra-high performance liquid chromatography – quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF MS) Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors..Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21505124).