In the current study, a TiO2-based SPE strategy was first developed for the elimination of high-abundance ribonucleosides from biological samples.
The affinity interaction mechanism between TiO2 and ribonucleosides was investigated by studying the retention behavior of adenosine and 2′-deoxyadenosine on a TiO2 separation column.
The TiO2-based SPE demonstrated a more effective and much faster and simpler method on the elimination of RNA contamination than the traditional enzymatic digestion method.
Furthermore, the TiO2-based SPE was successfully utilized in purification of 2′-O-methylated ribonucleosides from the bulky normal ribonucleosides in RNA of HeLa cells.
Taken together, this effective TiO2-based SPE strategy was expected to provide a promising approach for the highly specific purification of relevant modified nucleosides for their sensitive and accurate determination.