Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (2): 260-265.doi: 10.1007/s40242-022-2166-y

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Ion-pair Reversed-phase×Low-pH Reversed-phase Two-dimensional Liquid Chromatography for In-depth Proteomic Profiling

NIU Wenxue1,2, LIU Zheyi2, LIU Jing3, LAI Can2,4, ZHANG Tingting2,4, ZHAO Heng2, WANG Guosheng1, WANG Fangjun2,4   

  1. 1. College of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142, P. R. China;
    2. CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, P. R. China;
    3. College of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, P. R. China;
    4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China
  • Received:2022-05-07 Online:2023-04-01 Published:2023-03-16
  • Contact: WANG Fangjun, WANG Guosheng E-mail:wangfj@dicp.ac.cn;wangguosheng@syuct.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No.2019YFE0119300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.32088101), the Original Innovation Project of CAS(No.ZDBS-LY-SLH032), and the Project of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China (No.DICPI202007).

Abstract: High-resolution liquid chromatography separation is essential to in-depth proteomic profiling of complex biological samples. Herein, we established an ion-pair reversed-phase×reversed-phase two-dimensional liquid chromatography (IPRP×RP 2DLC) strategy for comprehensive proteomic analysis. Both RPLC separation dimensions were performed at low pH, with trifluoroacetic acid(TFA) and formic acid(FA) as mobile phase addictive, respectively. As the good separation resolution offered by ion-pairing effect of TFA, the fractionation efficiency was greatly improved with 74.0% peptides identified in just one fraction. Comparing with conventional high pH RP fractionation, the overall separation rate of IPRP was about 1.6 times that of high-pH RP, which increased the number of identified peptides by 21%. Further, 2169 proteins and 8540 peptides were confidently identified from crude serum sample by our IPRP×RP 2DLC strategy, exhibiting great potential in clinical proteomics in the future.

Key words: Two-dimensional liquid chromatography(2DLC), Ion-pair reversed-phase liquid chromatography(IPRP-LC), IPRP×low-pH RP 2DLC, Proteomics, Mass spectrometry