Synthesis of a molecularly imprinted polymer for the isolation of 1-hydroxypyrene in human urine

•A MIP against 1-OHP was synthetised using a precipitation strategy.•A novel MISPE–HPLC-FLD method for determination of 1-OHP was established.•The method had high recoveries, low detection limit and good repeatability.•This work is the first application of MIP to determine the urinary PAH metabolites.

In the last decades, the assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons' exposure has generated great interest and 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) has been commonly used as a biological indicator of exposure to PAHs in many studies in environmental and occupational health. In this research, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was synthesised by precipitation polymerisation using 1-OHP as template, methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as cross-linker, and acetonitrile as porogen. MIP was used as solid-phase extraction (SPE) material for sample pretreatment and isolation of 1-OHP and posterior detection in a reversed-phase HPLC-FLD. Various parameters including washing solvent, elution solvent and volume affecting the extraction efficiency of the polymer have been evaluated to achieve the isolation of 1-OHP from urine samples and to reduce non-specific interactions. Cross-selectivity was studied in the presence of other structural analogues of the 1-OHP as hydroxyphenantrene isomers.The method was validated over a concentration range of 0.15–2.00 µg L−1, R2>0.998. Recovery values were in the range of 78–90% and RSD <6.7%. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.05 µg L−1 and 0.17 µg L−1, respectively.In our knowledge, it is the first time that this methodology is applied for analysing urinary hydroxypyrene and it has been demonstrated that this specific MISPE–HPLC-FLD method offers a fast and simple alternative to determine 1-OHP in human urine samples.

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