Application of micro- and nano-HPLC to the determination and characterization of bioactive and biomarker peptides.

This article reviews the works published since 2001 (included) on the micro/nano-HPLC analysis of bioactive and biomarker peptides. The main achievements related to the improvement of the detection sensitivity, quantitation repeatability and reproducibility, and separation selectivity are highlighted. A wide attention is paid to the application of micro/nano-HPLC to the analysis of bioactive peptides in biological matrices. The uses of micro/nano-HPLC in peptidomics to discover new endogenous bioactive peptides and to develop quantitation procedures to compare the levels of peptides of interest in two different biological samples are also considered. Finally, the application of micro/nano-HPLC to the analysis of biomarker peptides for various diseases is also included in this review.