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. 2021 Apr 3;26(7):2061.
doi: 10.3390/molecules26072061.

Magnetic Micro-Solid-Phase Extraction Using a Novel Carbon-Based Composite Coupled with HPLC-MS/MS for Steroid Multiclass Determination in Human Plasma

Andrea Speltini  1 , Francesca Merlo  2 , Federica Maraschi  2 , Giorgio Marrubini  1 , Anna Faravelli  2 , Antonella Profumo  2
Affiliations

Magnetic Micro-Solid-Phase Extraction Using a Novel Carbon-Based Composite Coupled with HPLC-MS/MS for Steroid Multiclass Determination in Human Plasma

Andrea Speltini et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

A micron-sized sorbent, Magn-Humic, has been prepared by humic acids pyrolysis onto silica-coated magnetite. The material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area measurements and applied for simultaneous magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) of glucocorticoids, estrogens, progestogens, and androgens at ng mL-1 levels from human plasma followed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Due to the low affinity for proteins, steroids extraction was done with no need for proteins precipitation/centrifugation. As highlighted by a design of experiments, MSPE was performed on 250 µL plasma (after 1:4 dilution) by 50 mg Magn-Humic (reusable for eight extractions) achieving quantitative recovery and satisfying clean-up. This was improved by washing (2 mL 2% v/v formic acid) prior to analytes elution by 0.5 mL 1:1 v/v methanol-acetonitrile followed by 0.5 mL methanol; eluate reduction to 0.25 mL compensated the initial sample dilution. The accuracy was assessed in certified blank fetal bovine serum and in human plasma, gaining satisfactory recovery in the range 65-122%, detection limits in the range 0.02-0.3 ng mL-1 (0.8 ng mL-1 for 17-β-estradiol) and suitable inter-day precision (relative standard deviation (RSD) <14%, n = 3). The method was evaluated in terms of selectivity, sensitivity, matrix-effect, instrumental carry-over, and it was applied to human plasma samples.

Keywords: HPLC–MS; bioanalysis; biological matrices; carbon materials; sample preparation; solid-phase extraction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representative scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images acquired on (a) pristine Fe3O4, (b1,b2) SiO2@Fe3O4, (c1,c2) c-SiO2@Fe3O4, (d) Magn-Humic, and (e) c-Magn-Humic.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Design of experiments (DoE) results: (a) plot of the coefficients of the model (stars indicate the significance level of the coefficients, error bars indicate the confidence interval of the mean values for the coefficients, computed for α = 0.05); (b) response surfaces of predicted recovery as function of x1 (FBS volume) and x2 (sorbent amount).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Representative multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) chromatograms of the MSPE eluate from human plasma sample.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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