Designed synthesis of carbon-functional magnetic graphene mesoporous silica materials using polydopamine as carbon precursor for the selective enrichment of N-linked glycan

•A carbon-functionalized magnetic mesoporous material was designed and synthesized.•The method can enrich glycans and exclude high abundance proteins.•The material was successfully applied to enrich of N-linked glycans from complex samples.

Glycosylation, which has been confirmed to be associated with many diseases, is an important protein post-translation modification. Taking into account the low abundant of glycan, the purification of complex biological samples is considered to be very significant before mass spectrometry detection. In this work, carbon-functionalized magnetic graphene /mesoporous silica materials (C-Mag G@mSiO2 materials) with high content of carbon were designed and synthesized by using polydopamine as carbon precursor. Taking advantage of the special interaction between carbon and glycan, C-Mag G@mSiO2 materials were successfully applied to enrich N-linked glycans in different complex samples, such as standard glycoprotein digestion, the mixture of standard glycoprotein digestion, glycoprotein and non-glycoprotein, and human serum.

Graphical abstractThe carbon-functionalized magnetic graphene /mesoporous silica materials (C-Mag G@mSiO2 materials) were constructed by using polydopamine as carbon precursor, which could enrich N-linked glycans form complex sample efficiently.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide