No abstract

A novel approach for molecularly imprinting proteins, i.e. inhibitor-assisted imprinting, onto silica microspheres is discussed, which provides advanced functional materials addressing prevalent challenges in the field of protein purification and isolation from biotechnologically relevant media. Pepstatin-assisted surface-imprinted core-shell microbeads for the acidic protease pepsin were synthesized serving as selective sorbent material for solid phase extraction (SPE) applications. The inorganic core, i.e., amino-functionalized silica spheres (AFSS), is prepared by co-condensation of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and (3-aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane (APTMS) in water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion, which is then reacted with pepstatin, a selective inhibitor of pepsin, onto the surface of the AFSS via an amide bond. 3aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) serves as the functional monomer for establishing nanothin imprinted polymer films, i.e., poly (3-aminophenylboronic acid) (pAPBA) at the surface of the pepstatin-immobilized AFSS via oxidation by ammonium persulfate in aqueous solution in the presence (molecularly imprinted polymer, MIP) and absence (non-imprinted polymer; NIP) of pepsin. Thus obtained core-shell microbeads are packaged into SPE cartridges for evaluating the selectivity for pepsin. Each individual synthesis step is thoroughly characterized using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and BET methods. Finally, the imprinted core-shell microbeads indeed provide specific binding.

No abstract

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with a core–shell structure for efficient, reliable, and selective extraction of vanillin via solid-phase extraction (SPE) and incubation methods were developed using a sol–gel process based on (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) as the functional monomer, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the cross-linker, and vanillin as the template.

Molecular imprinting has proven to be a versatile and simple strategy to obtain selective materials also termed “plastic antibodies” for a wide variety of species, i.e., from ions to macromolecules and viruses. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the development of epitope‐imprinted polymers for selective binding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is not reported to date. An epitope from the SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein comprising 17 amino acids is used as a template during the imprinting process. The interactions between the epitope template and organosilane monomers used for the polymer synthesis are predicted via molecular docking simulations. The molecularly imprinted polymer presents a 1.8‐fold higher selectivity against the target epitope compared to non‐imprinted control polymers. Rebinding studies with pseudoviruses containing SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein demonstrate the superior selectivity of the molecularly imprinted matrices, which mimic the interactions of angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 receptors from human cells. The obtained results highlight the potential of SARS‐CoV‐2 molecularly imprinted polymers for a variety of applications including chem/biosensing and antiviral delivery.