Electrospun polyacrylonitrile fibers with and without magnetic nanoparticles for selective and efficient separation of glycoproteins.

Polyacrylonitrile fibers with and without magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) were prepared by electrospinning. The pure polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers and the composited polyacrylonitrile (PAN/Fe3O4) fibers were studied with respect to their capability for enrichment of glycoproteins. Specifically, the glycoproteins ovalbumin (OB) and transferrin (Trf) were studied and compared to the non-glycoproteins bovine serum albumin and lysozyme. Following adsorption and subsequent protein elution with 0.1 wt% of CTAB solution, the glycoproteins were analyzed by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The strong interaction between PAN or PAN/Fe3O4 fibers and glycoproteins is attributed to the synergistic effects of hydrophilic and hydrogen bond interactions. The PAN/Fe3O4 fibers have an attractive additional feature of allowing magnetic separation. The PAN and PAN/Fe3O4 fibers have a high adsorption capacity toward OB and Trf. The treated PAN/Fe3O4 fibers display good selectivity, fast adsorption kinetics, and were applied to extractions of mixed protein samples. The detection limits of OB and Trf are 0.32 and 0.22 µg·mL-1, respectively. The PAN/Fe3O4 fibers offered an alternative solution for adsorption of glycoproteins from biological samples. Graphical abstract The pure polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers and the composited polyacrylonitrile (PAN/Fe3O4) fibers were studied with respect to their capability for enrichment of glycoproteins: glycoproteins ovalbumin (OB) and transferrin (Trf). The treated PAN/Fe3O4 fibers showed fast adsorption kinetics, were applied in a physiological state, mixed and real samples.