Molecularly imprinted polymers as antibody and receptor mimics for assays, sensors and drug discovery

Molecular imprinting is a technique used to create specific recognition sites on the surface of materials. Although widely developed for chromatographic separation of small molecules, this approach has not been adequately investigated for biomaterial applications. Thus, the objective of these experiments was to explore the potential of molecular imprinting for creating biomaterials that preferentially bind specific proteins. Macroporous polysiloxane (silica) scaffolds were imprinted with either lysozyme or RNase A using sol-gel processing. The quantity of surface-accessible protein, which was related to the number of potential binding sites, was varied by changing the amount of protein loaded into the sol. Up to 62% of loaded protein was accessible. The amount of protein per unit surface area ranged from 0.3μg m −2 for low loading of RNase to 152μg m −2 for high loading of lysozyme. Protein-imprinted scaffolds were then evaluated for their ability to preferentially recognize the template biomolecule when incubated in mixtures containing both the imprinted protein and a competitor protein of comparable size (approximately 14 kD). In solutions containing a single protein, up to 3.6 times more template bound compared with the competitor. Furthermore, in solutions containing equal amounts of both molecules, the porous scaffolds bound up to three times more template than the competitor protein, which is a level of preferential binding similar to values reported in the molecular imprinting literature for both organic and inorganic materials.

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“…Refs. [5][6][7][8][9][10]). Comparatively few reports describe imprinting inorganic materials [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protein-imprinted polysiloxane scaffolds

2007

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“…Furthermore, these biological systems are expensive and often difficult to immobilize on the supports used in diagnostic assays (Ye and Haupt, 2004). The use of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanoparticles can overcome these problems.…”

Section: Molecularly Imprinted Polymersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymeric nanoparticles for optical sensing

Canfarotta

Whitcombe

Piletsky

2013

Biotechnology Advances

115

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Nanotechnology is a powerful tool for use in diagnostic applications. For these purposes a variety of functional nanoparticles containing fluorescent labels, gold and quantum dots at their cores have been produced, with the aim of enhanced sensitivity and multiplexing capabilities. This work will review progress in the application of polymeric nanoparticles in optical diagnostics, both for in vitro and in vivo detection, together with a discussion of their biodistribution and biocompatibility.

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“…In the last years, indeed, although biological receptors have specific molecular affinity and have been widely used in diagnostic bioassays and chemo/biosensors, great affords have been made in synthesizing artificial recognition receptors to overcome the limit in the efficiency of chemosensors, especially for the detection of ultratrace analytes due to the small surface area and non-tunable surface properties of transducers. Another limitation of traditional biosensors is that often natural receptors for many detected analytes do not exist; www.intechopen.com furthermore, they are produced via complex protocols with a high cost and require specific handling conditions because of their poor stability (Whitcombe et al, 2000;Wulff, 2002;Haupt & Mosbach, 2000;Ye & Haupt, 2004).…”

Section: Mips In Chemical Sensingmentioning

confidence: 99%