Immobilization of trypsin onto multifunctional meso-/macroporous core-shell microspheres: a new platform for rapid...

A simple, fast, efficient, and reusable microwave-assisted tryptic digestion system which was constructed by immobilization of trypsin onto porous core-shell Fe3O4@fTiO2 microspheres has been developed. The nanostructure with magnetic core and titania shell has multiple pore sizes (2.4 and 15.0 nm), high pore volume (0.25 cm(3) g(-1)), and large surface area (50.45 m(2) g(-1)). For the proteins, the system can realize fast and efficient microwave-assisted tryptic digestion. Various standard proteins (e.g., cytochrome c (cyt-c), myoglobin (MYO), β-lactoglobulin (β-LG), and bovine serum albumin (BSA)) used can be digested in 45 s under microwave radiation, and they can be confidently identified by mass spectrometry (MS) analysis; even the concentration of substrate is as low as 5 ng μL(-1). Furthermore, the system for the 45 s microwave-assisted tryptic digestion is still effective after the trypsin-immobilized microspheres have been reused for 5 times. Importantly, 1715 unique proteins from 10 μg mouse brain proteins can be identified with high confidence after treatment of 45 s microwave-assisted tryptic digestion.