A Novel Biomimetic Tool for Assessing Vitamin K Status Based on Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Abstract

Vitamin K was originally discovered as a cofactor required to activate clotting factors and has recently been shown to play a key role in the regulation of soft tissue calcification. This property of vitamin K has led to an increased interest in novel methods for accurate vitamin K detection. Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) could offer a solution, as they have been used as synthetic receptors in a large variety of biomimetic sensors for the detection of similar molecules over the past few decades, because of their robust nature and remarkable selectivity. In this article, the authors introduce a novel imprinting approach to create a MIP that is able to selectively rebind vitamin K1. As the native structure of the vitamin does not allow for imprinting, an alternative imprinting strategy was developed, using the synthetic compound menadione (vitamin K3) as a template. Target rebinding was analyzed by means of UV-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy and two custom-made thermal readout techniques. This analysis reveals that the MIP-based sensor reacts to an increasing concentration of both menadione and vitamin K1. The Limit of Detection (LoD) for both compounds was established at 700 nM for the Heat Transfer Method (HTM), while the optimized readout approach, Thermal Wave Transport Analysis (TWTA), displayed an increased sensitivity with a LoD of 200 nM. The sensor seems to react to a lesser extent to Vitamin E, the analogue under study. To further demonstrate its potential application in biochemical research, the sensor was used to measure the absorption of vitamin K in blood serum after taking vitamin K supplements. By employing a gradual enrichment strategy, the sensor was able to detect the difference between baseline and peak absorption samples and was able to quantify the vitamin K concentration in good agreement with a validation experiment using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In this way, the authors provide a first proof of principle for a low-cost, straightforward, and label-free vitamin K sensor.

The Liberalization of Microfluidics: Form 2 Benchtop 3D Printing as an Affordable Alternative to Established Manufacturing Methods

“…The capabilities of benchtop 3D printers like the Form 2 are not yet comparable. This is due to the large difference in achievable channel size; however, often experimental setups do not necessitate such small channels (1–50 μm) when used in biosensing applications . Channels size between 250 and 500 μm, despite being in the upper range of the microfluidic scale, are still very useful in manipulation of small volumes of fluids.…”

Molecularly Imprinted Polymers in Biological Applications

“…In the past decade, the number of studies toward using MIPs as a biomarker has increased, as they hold a potential to provide a sensitive, undamaged, rapid and low-cost diagnostic tool [80]. The detection of serum albumin [81,82], hemoglobin [83,84], ferritin [85] and avidin [86], as well as studies of infectious diseases [87][88][89], bone loss [90,91], cardiovascular diseases [92] and various cancers are some areas [4,[93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102] that are of high interest for the use of MIPs as biomarkers.…”

MIPs for commercial application in low-cost sensors and assays – An overview of the current status quo

“…urine, blood, wastewater, soil samples, etc.) for a whole host of analytes [ [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] , [59] ]. Device sensitivity and limit of detection (LoD) is therefore situationally dependent on the technique and MIP employed.…”