Targeting Enrichment and Correlation Studies of Glutathione and Homocysteine in IgAVN Patient Urine Based on a Core–Shell Zr-Based Metal–Organic Framework

Aminothiols are closely related to chronic kidney disease, but little is known regarding levels of related aminothiols in the urine of immunoglobulin A vasculitis with nephritis (IgAVN) patients. Herein, a well-defined core–shell Zr-based metal–organic framework (Zr-MOF) composite SiO2@50Benz-Cys was constructed as a mercury ion affinity material via a solvent-assisted ligand exchange strategy for the selective extraction and enrichment of low-concentration aminothiols in IgAVN patient urine. SiO2@50Benz-Cys was competent to enrich the total glutathione (GSH) and total homocysteine (Hcy) in virtue of the excellent affinity after chelation with mercury ions. The extraction efficiencies were closely related to the pH, dithiothreitol amount, and the dose of functional Zr-MOF. Coupled with HPLC–MS/MS in optimized conditions, GSH and Hcy were determined with low detection limits of 0.5 and 1 nmol L–1, respectively. The recoveries of GSH and Hcy for the urine sample at three spiked levels were in the range of 85.3–105% and 79.5–103%, which showed good precision and accuracy. Benefiting from the matrix interference elimination in the process of extraction, the simultaneous detection of aminothiols in the urine of the healthy group and immunoglobulin A vasculitis (IgAV) and IgAVN patients was successfully carried out, suggesting that the Zr-MOF and the robust method together provided a potential application in the analysis of urinary biomolecules. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the levels of GSH and Hcy had significant differences between the patients and the control. This work is very valuable as it provides a better understanding of concentration alterations of GSH and Hcy in urine involved with IgAVN for clinical research.