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. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].