Quantification of 1-hydroxypyrene in undiluted human urine samples using magnetic solid-phase extraction coupled with internal extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

• Coupling of magnetic solid-phase extraction with internal extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry is shown.
• 1-Hydroxypyrene in raw human urine samples was effectively enriched by polypyrrole-coated Fe3O4 magnetite nanocomposites.
• High throughput quantitative detection of urinary 1-OHP for health risk assessment of PAHs exposure was achieved.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of ubiquitous environmental contaminants raising worldwide concerns due to their carcinogenic effects. In this study, 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP, the most widely used biomarker of internal dose of PAHs exposure) in undiluted human urine samples (10 mL) was selectively enriched by polypyrrole-coated Fe3O4 magnetite nanocomposites (termed as Fe3O4@Ppy, 1 mg) and then directly eluted by the electrospraying solvent (acetone/benzene/acetic acid (v/v/v, 90/10/1); 100 uL) biased with −3.5 kV to produce the deprotonated 1-OHP anions for mass spectrometric analysis. The method established here significantly improved the current performance for detection of urinary 1-OHP, providing the speed for a single sample analysis within 4 min, the limits of detection (LOD) of 0.0001 μg L−1, the linear response range of 0.001–5.000 μg L−1 (R2 = 0.9994), recovery rates of 90.6–96.1%, and relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 6) values between 2.9% and 8.0%. Human samples including raw human urine collected from 10 healthy volunteers (5 smokers and 5 nonsmokers) and 7 lung cancer patients have been successfully analyzed, showing that magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) coupled with internal extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (iEESI-MS) is an alternative strategy for high throughput quantitative detection of urinary 1-OHP for health risk assessment of PAHs exposure.

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