title: Alginate films as macromolecular imprinted matrices.
abstract: Macromolecularly imprinted polymers have been developed to mimic the non-covalent interactions driving molecular recognition in nature. The creation of an engineered antibody mimic would allow for the development of customizable films for biomolecular sensing. To demonstrate this principle, a cross-linked alginate film has been imprinted with bovine serum albumin (BSA) using aqueous biocompatible gelation methods. The imprinting efficiency of the synthesized films imprinted with BSA was determined and compared to the non-specific uptake of complementary proteins which were not imprinted in the alginate matrix. It was found that the recognition of the BSA using an alginate film was 6.4 mg/g polymer, which compares favorably to previously reported macromolecularly imprinted networks. The absorption of non-imprinted cationic proteins by the alginate matrix demonstrates that overcoming non-specific binding needs to be a focus of future work in order to successfully employ these materials towards biomolecular sensing within a physiological environment.
authors.affiliation: Center on Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, Bionanotechnology and Molecular Recognition, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 1 University Station, C0400, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-0231, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: Edgar Pérez
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Herrero
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Peppas
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002417:Cattle; D005782:Gels; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D054802:Molecular Imprinting / Q000379:methods*; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D005782:Gels; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D020723:Glucuronic Acid