Recent advances in mesoporous materials for sample preparation in proteomics research

Sample preparation is an indispensable part of proteomics research. Owing to their merits such as large surface area, narrow pore size distribution, adjustable pore size, and modifiable pore inwalls, mesoporous materials have been widely developed for sample preparation in proteomics. The uniform mesopores allow small-sized peptides into mesoporous channels, while large-size proteins are excluded. In addition, the large surface area of mesoporous materials could provide more binding sites for modification, thereby improving the selectivity of materials and increasing the sensitivity during mass spectrometry analysis. In this review, recent advances in mesoporous materials for sample preparation, including the enrichment of endogenous peptides, specific enrichment of phosphopeptides and glycopeptides, and protein digestion, are summarized and discussed comprehensively. Furthermore, concerns regarding the synthesis of mesoporous materials and enrichment biases of different functionalized mesoporous materials toward target peptides and the problem of sample analysis are also prospected.