Identification of phosphonylated peptides using a MALDI target functionalized with lanthanum stearate

As markers of intoxication, adducts of blood proteins with organophosphorus compounds (OPs) allow establishing the fact of poisoning and, furthermore, enable identification of the OPs by the attached residue. This study aimed to develop a method of specific and selective extraction of blood protein adducts carrying OPs on the surface of a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) target functionalized with multimolecular structures based on lanthanum stearate using metal affinity chromatography. We have shown the ability of adsorbent to retain both full-size and dealkylated adducts of blood proteins with OPs. The developed method allowed extraction and identification of peptides of human serum albumin and human butyrylcholinesterase modified with various OPs (after incubation of human blood plasma with OPs in concentrations from 1 to 100 ng/mL), which makes this approach applicable for the purposes of OPs identification in the context of investigation of real cases of intoxication.