Highly selective capture of nucleosides with boronic acid functionalized polymer brushes prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization

The nucleoside or modified nucleoside level in biological fluids reflects the pathological or physiological state of the body. Boronate affinity absorbents are widely used to selectively extract nucleosides from complex samples. In this work, a novel functionalized absorbent was synthesized by attaching 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid to gold nanoparticles on modified attapulgite. The surface of the attapulgite was modified by poly(acryloyloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride) by atom transfer radical polymerization, creating many polymer brushes on the surface. The resultant material exhibited superior binding capacity (30.83 mg/g) for adenosine and was able to capture cis-diol nucleosides from 1000-fold interferences. Finally, to demonstrate its potential for biomolecule extraction, this boronate affinity material was used to preconcentrate nucleosides from human urine and plasma.