Ricerc@Sapienza

The work describes the development of an enrichment method for the analysis of endogenous phosphopeptides in serum. Endogenous peptides can play significant biological roles, and some of them could be exploited as future biomarkers. In this context, blood is one of the most useful biofluids for screening, but a systematic investigation of the endogenous peptides, especially phosphorylated ones, is still lacking, mainly due to the lack of suitable analytical methods.

This minireview is dedicated to the discussion of analytical methods based on magnetic solid-phase extraction for the investigation of different analyte classes in complex matrices. Magnetic solid-phase extraction represents one of the most exploited approaches for sample preparation, which benefits from the development of new materials and from the coupling with other purification and clean-up strategies. New materials are continuously described for the isolation and enrichment of a variety of compounds, from small molecules to biologic macromolecules.

Magnetic solid-phase extraction is one of the most promising new extraction methods for liquid samples before ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) analysis. Several types of materials, including carbonaceous ones, have been prepared for this purpose. In this paper, for the first time, the preparation, characterization, and sorption capability of Fe3O4-graphitized carbon black (mGCB) composite toward some compounds of environmental interest were investigated.