An improved approach to hydrophilic interaction chromatography of peptides: Salt gradients in the presence of high isocratic acetonitrile concentrations

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) for separations of peptides has been employed infrequently, particularly considering that this technique was introduced over 20 years ago. The present manuscript describes a radical departure from the traditional HILIC elution approach, where separations are achieved via increasing salt (sodium perchlorate) gradients in the presence of high isocratic concentrations (>80%) of acetonitrile, denoted HILIC/SALT. This initial study compared to reversed-phase chromatography (RPC), HILIC and HILIC/SALT for the separation of mixtures of synthetic peptide standards varying in structure (amphipathic α-helix, random coil), length (10–26 residues), number of positively charged residues (+1 to +11) and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity. Results showed a marked superiority of the HILIC/SALT approach compared to traditional HILIC and excellent complementarity to RPC for peptide separations. We believe these initial results offer a new dimension to HILIC, enabling it to transform from an occasional HPLC approach for peptide separations to a more generally applicable method.

► We describe a radical departure from traditional HILIC of peptides.
► Elution is by a salt gradient in the presence of a high acetonitrile concentration.
► This HILIC/SALT method is superior to HILIC and complements RPC for peptides.
► Our results offer a new dimension to HILIC as a mainstream peptide analytical tool.