Analysis of Nucleic Acids and Proteins in Capillary Electrophoresis and Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis Using Polymers as Additives of the Background Electrolytes

Abstract

This review article deals with recent development in the analyses of proteins and DNA by capillary electrophoresis (CE) and microchip CE (MCE) using polymer solutions. Polymer solutions are commonly prepared from linear polymers such as linear polyacrylamide, poly(ethylene oxide), hydroxyethyl cellulose, and poly(vinylpyrrolidone), which possess the advantages of low fluorescence background, self-coating capability, and high sieving ability. We discuss the key parameters that affect the separation efficiency, including electroosmotic flow, chemical and physical properties of polymers, background electrolytes, and additives. The advantages and disadvantages of CE and MCE in conjunction with laser-induced fluorescence using polymer solutions for the analyses of DNA and proteins in biological fluids are highlighted. Several recently developed CE approaches such as gradient techniques and sample stacking for efficient and sensitive analyses of DNA and proteins are emphasized. We also address the trend of using nanomaterials for bioanalysis in CE and MCE.

Use of nanomaterials in capillary and microchip electrophoresis

“…Recently, CE and CEC employing nanomaterials have covered a wide analytical range, such as the analysis of proteins, nucleic acids and peptides in biology, the separation of drugs and drug delivery analysis in medical sciences, as well as the separation of small molecules in other fields. Several reviews on the use of nanoparticles in electrophoretic separations have been published [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], and the advances of nanoparticles in CE and CEC were summarized by Guihen and Glennon [28].The advantage of applying nanomaterials in CE and CEC is that they provide additional interaction sites where the solutes can interact with running buffer additives, nanoparticles can also serve as large surface area platforms for organofunctional groups, which can interact with the capillary surface, analytes or both, leading to enhanced selectivity and separation efficiency. In addition, the employment of nanomaterials in detection is compatible with the strong trends of miniaturizing and integrating analytical instruments.…”

Recent Advances in the Synthesis of Complex Macromolecular Architectures Based on Poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) and the RAFT Polymerization Technique

“…(a) Laboratory analysis: protein and DNA analysis, as sieving or shielding medium and pollutant analysis as sorbent [12][13][14]. (b) Cosmetics: film for hair dressing products, setting lotions and conditioning shampoos [15][16][17].…”

One-step preparation of amino-PEG modified poly(methyl methacrylate) microchips for electrophoretic separation of biomolecules

“…In the MCE analysis of proteins, sample adsorption onto the surface of a separation microchannel should reduce the separation efficiency and the analytical reproducibility [10,11]. It has been well-known that dynamic coating of several polymers is one of the useful approaches for suppressing the protein adsorption [12][13][14][15]. However, desorption of the coated polymers from the surface of the microchannel is sometimes problematic, e.g., in case of the MCE separation combined with mass spectrometric detection.…”