Applications of Surface-Functionalized Diamond Nanoparticles for Mass-Spectrometry-Based Proteomics

Building upon recent success, diamond nanoparticles or nanodiamonds (NDs) for short have emerged as a promising new nanomaterial for biological applications The material holds several unique properties, such as low chemical reactivity, small particle size, large specific surface area, wide optical transparency range, and facile surface functionalizability, making it a useful substrate for affinity purification mass spectrometry Experiments have shown that the surface of NDs can be readily modified with diverse functional groups for either covalent or noncovalent conjugation with biomolecules Additionally, NDs conjugated with bioactive ligands or polymers can be used as high affinity probes for selective extraction and enrichment of molecules of interest for characterization by mass spectrometry This article summarizes the results of our work in employing surface-functionalized NDs as a unique solid-phase extraction and elution platform for pre-concentration, selective extraction, and purification of targeted biomolecules prior to gel electrophoresis or matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric analysis Recent progress and future perspectives are discussed.