Molecular imprinting of bovine serum albumin on polypyrrolidone magnetic microparticles for selective recognition of proteins

Abstract

Molecular imprinting involves polymerization of a functional monomer in the presence of a target analyte that acts as a template. The monomer initially forms a complex with the template. After polymerization and subsequent removal of the template, imprinted sites remain upon the polymer surface. They are complementary in size and shape to the analyte molecules. In that way, a memory effect is introduced into the polymer, which is now capable to recognize and “capture” the analyte. Molecular imprinting can be used in biosensors and in any analytic techniques requiring selective absorption. The main idea of this work was to combine the molecular imprinting with microencapsulation aiming at the preparation of smart biodegradable microparticles susceptible to external magnetic fields and bearing recognition sites sensitive to protein templates As functional monomer 2-pyrrolidone (PD) was used and as a template – bovine serum albumin (BSA). The polymer forming process was anionic ring-opening polymerization carried out at 40ºC in the presence of Fe or Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The molecularly imprinted particles were characterized by microscopy, spectral and thermal techniques. Their absorption capacity toward BSA was increased by 25-140% depending on the pH, concentration and type of the magnetic particles.