The review is devoted to analysis of the publications in the area of synthesis of artificial mimics of biological receptors using the method of molecular imprinting. General principles of molecular imprinting as well as main types of polymers being used in molecular imprinting are described. The special attention is paid to the polymers-biomimics synthesized using the method of non-covalent molecular imprinting.
Êeywords: molecular imprinting, molecularly imprinted polymer, polymers-biomimics.The abil ity of liv ing cells to ob tain in for ma tion from ex ter nal en vi ron ment is based on mo lec u lar rec og nition phe nom e non. Reg u la tion of vir tu ally all bio chem ical pro cesses in liv ing or gan isms is as so ci ated with mo lec u lar rec og ni tion based on complementarity of biomolecules: en zy matic ca tal y sis, intracellular transport, in ter ac tion of hor mones and other me di a tors with their re cep tors, and an ti gen-an ti body in ter ac tions. In other words, molecular recognition is a fundamental principle of life.Unique se lec tiv ity of biomolecules pro vides their wide prac ti cal ap pli ca tions -for the de vel op ment elabo ra tion of an a lyt i cal meth ods and bio tech no log i cal pro cesses as well as in med i cal di ag nos tics. Nor mally nat u ral re cep tors in ter act with the cor re spond ing ligands with high af fin ity, how ever, un der non-phys i olog i cal con di tions they are very un sta ble. Un for tunately, all biomolecules are ex tremely sen si tive to changes of tem per a ture, pH, [the] pres ence of or ganic sol vents, tox ins, heavy met als, etc. The gen eral draw -253