Aptamer-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles for extraction of adenosine from urine followed by electrospray ion mobility spectrometry.

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) conjugated with aptamer was developed for the selective extraction of adenosine in urine samples followed by electrospray ionization-ion mobility spectrometry (ESI-IMS). The ion mobility spectrum of adenosine showed two peaks at low concentrations and two more peaks related to dimer of adenosine at high concentrations. However, the ion mobility spectrum of eluent at low concentration showed only the peaks related to dimer of adenosine. In other words, aptamer captured two adenosine molecules between the top G-quartet and the two short stems, where they bonded to each other. The mass spectrum of the eluent also validated the presence of dimer (m/z 535.95). The effect of extraction parameters on extraction efficiency including sorbent amount, elution conditions (solvent type and volume) and adsorption conditions were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the linear dynamic range was found to be 0.05-5.00 μg mL(-1) with detection limit of 0.02 μg mL(-1). The extraction efficiency was 94% and the relative standard deviation was 4% for three replicate measurements of adenosine at 0.25 μg mL(-1) in urine samples. As a practical application, the method was applied for the determination of adenosine in urine samples of patients with lung cancer, and the obtained results were in good agreement with those obtained by HPLC-UV method. Therefore, the proposed method is an alternative clinical analysis.