Professor Chen Lei's team from the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Tianjin University developed novel technology for highly selective separation and sensitive detection of natural bioactive peptides. Their work has been published in the Journal of Food Chemistry titled “Highly selective separation and sensitive detection of natural bioactive peptides by multi-terminal star cyclodextrin polymer as chiral stationary phase”.

Natural bioactive peptides (NBPs), composed of 2–50 amino acids, can be derived from plant and animal extracts, chemical synthesis, or endogenous human secretion. Due to their significant multifunctionality, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects, NBPs have recently become a topic of interest in food science and drug development. Nevertheless, their separation and detection remain technically challenging: the insufficient detection sensitivity in conventional chromatographic methods due to their weak ultraviolet absorption; the issue of separating and detecting highly structurally similar peptide analogues; and the challenge in simultaneous separation of chiral NBPs and achiral metabolites within complex biological matrices. Therefore, developing highly selective and sensitive separation strategies is crucial for biomedicine and pharmaceutical research.

Professor Chen’s team has successfully fabricated a star supramolecular polymer ligand (Star-multi-CD) featuring nine CD side chains with the fully 2,3,6-derived CD as the parent nucleus. It exhibits uniform particle size, stable spherical supramolecular conformation, and significantly enhanced host-guest recognition capability. The Sil-Star-multi-CD CSP performed multiple chromatographic retention mechanisms, including host-guest interactions and hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions. It demonstrated excellent chiral separation selectivity for ten pairs of enantiomers, including vitamin C.

The Sil-Star-multi-CD CSP performed particularly well in the multi-component analysis of complex biological matrices. It has been successfully applied to the simultaneous separation and quantification of chiral endogenous peptides and achiral common metabolites in serum, highlighting its potential application for clinical disease diagnosis and monitoring. Without derivatization, it achieved efficient separation and sensitive detection of NBPs such as carnosine and anserine in chicken breast. Coupled with LC-MS/MS, it further enabled localization and analysis of homocarnosine, significantly improving the analytical efficiency for complex matrices and providing a new strategy for the extraction and separation of animal-derived NBPs. This research provides an efficient analytical platform for the quality control of NBPs in functional foods and drug development, as well as for clinical diagnostics.

Fig 1. Extraction, separation and assay of carnosine analogues in chicken breast by the multi-terminal star cyclodextrin polymer chiral stationary phase.

The School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Tianjin University, serves as the primary communication unit of the research. PhD student Bai Hui is the first author, and associate professor Chen Lei is the sole corresponding author. The authors acknowledge the technical support of teacher Gao Yan from the Instrument Analysis Center of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, and Dr. Deng Xiaojuan from the Analysis and Testing Center of Tianjin University.

By: School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology

Editor: Sun Xiaofang