Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers via ring-opening metathesis polymerization for solid-phase extraction of bisphenol A.

The use of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) prepared by ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) for bisphenol A (BPA) was reported in this article. The resulting MIPs have high imprinting and adsorption capacities, and can be used for separation and determination of BPA in environmental water samples. The successful application of ROMP in the molecular imprinting field is described here. For the first time, two cross-linkers (dicyclopentadiene and 2,5-norbornadiene) and two Grubbs catalysts (first and second generation) were investigated to compare their effects on the binding performance of MIPs. The ROMP technique is able to create the imprinted polymers within 1 h under mild conditions. Furthermore, it can provide MIPs with obvious imprinting effects towards the template, very fast template rebinding kinetics, high binding capacity and appreciable selectivity over structurally related compounds. The adsorption process for MIPs in this study can be completed within 45 min, which is much faster than that of bulk MIPs synthesized by traditional free-radical polymerization. The resulting imprinting polymer was evaluated for its use as a sorbent support in an off-line solid-phase extraction approach to recover BPA from diluted aqueous samples. The optimized extraction protocol resulted in a reliable MISPE method suitable for selective extraction and preconcentration of BPA from tap water, human urine and liquid milk samples. This article demonstrates the practical feasibility of the MIPs prepared via ROMP as solid-phase extraction materials.

[Recent progress in the development of analytical methods for insulin-like growth factor-I].

Different methods for the pretreatment of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and the derivatization of IGF-I are introduced. Detection methods such as immunoassay, chromatography, chromatography-mass spectrometry and surface plasma resonance (SPR) and so on are also reviewed.

Continuous monitoring of restriction endonuclease cleavage activity by universal molecular beacon light quenching coupled with real-time polymerase chain reaction.

We describe a method for sensitive monitoring of restriction endonuclease kinetics and activity by use of a universal molecular beacon (U-MB) coupled with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The method is used to monitor the progress of DNA cleavage in a sealed reaction tube and offers more accurate and high-throughput detection. The template has a universal tail hybridized with the U-MB and the remaining sequence is complementary to one of the restriction endonuclease digestion products. The U-MB is replaced by the extension of digested product and the fluorescence quenches. With this concept, one universal fluorescence probe can be used in different enzyme analytical systems. In the work described here, homogenous assays were performed with the restriction endonucleases AluI, EcoRI, XhoI, and SacI at smoothly controlled temperature. Cleavage efficiencies were determined, and the potential applications of this method were discussed. Furthermore, the AluI and EcoRI cleavage reactions were monitored online at varying substrate concentrations at the molecular level, and K(m), V(max), and K(cat) values were calculated. The results suggest that U-MB monitoring of restriction endonuclease assays based on real-time PCR will be very useful for high-throughput, sensitive, and precise assays for enzyme activity screening and evolutionary biotechnology analysis.

Thermosensitive and salt-sensitive molecularly imprinted hydrogel for bovine serum albumin.

A novel stimuli-responsive protein imprinted polymer for selective recognition of bovine serum albumin is presented. N-[3-(Dimethylamino)propyl]-methacrylamide, which is positively charged in neutral solution and is able to self-assemble onto the template protein through electrostatic interaction, was chosen as the functional monomer. Polymerization was carried out in the presence of N-isopropylacrylamide as an assistant monomer, which resulted in a stimuli-responsive protein imprinted polymer. The template proteins were easily removed by treatment with 500 mmol L(-1) NaCl solution. The influences of the external stimuli, such as temperature and ionic strength, on the polymer affinity were investigated, and a clear conformational memory was observed. The association constant ( Ka) and binding capacity ( Qmax) for the specific interaction between the protein imprinted polymer and the template protein were determined by Scatchard plots and found to be 9.6 x 10(4) L mol(-1) and 4.7 micromol g(-1), respectively. Several proteins different in molecular weight and isoelectric point were employed as reference, and it was shown that the charge effect and the shape memory effect were the major factors affecting the imprint formation and template recognition. Finally, this imprinted polymer was used to purify the bovine serum albumin from the protein mixture and real sample, which demonstrated its high selectivity.

Protein-responsive imprinted polymers with specific shrinking and rebinding.

Stimuli-responsive protein imprinted polymers were obtained via a combination of molecular imprinting and reversible stimuli-responsive polymer using lysozyme or cytochrome c as template, N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA) as major monomer, methacrylic acid (MAA) and acrylamide (AAm) as functional co-monomers, and N,N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAAm) as crosslinker. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) can respond not only to external stimuli such as temperature and salt concentration, but also to the corresponding template protein with significant specific volume shrinking. This specific shrinking behavior was attributed to the synergistic effect of multiple-site weak interactions (electrostatic force, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction) and the cavity effect. The MIPs showed highly selective adsorption of template proteins with specific shrinking compared with the non-imprinted polymers. The results indicated that the MIPs seemed to change shape to accommodate the conformation of the template protein leading to the formation of a shape complementary cavity.

Polyethylene glycol diacrylate-based supermacroporous monolithic cryogel as high-performance liquid chromatography stationary phase for protein and polymeric nanoparticle separation.

A supermacroporous monolithic cryogel was directly prepared by in situ cryo-copolymerization in a stainless steel cartridge (70mmx5.0mm I.D.) using methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) as crosslinker. The highly crosslinked (90%, molar ratio) poly(MAA-PEGDA) cryogel had more uniform supermacropores with a mean diameter of 25microm compared to the poly(acrylamide)-based cryogels. The viability of poly(MAA-PEGDA) cryogel as a medium was demonstrated for separations of lysozyme from chicken egg white (CEW) and water-soluble poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-3-(dimethylamino) propyl methacrylamide) (NIPAM-DMAPMA) nanoparticles from its crude reaction solution. The dynamic binding capacities of lysozyme and the polymeric nanoparticles were 4.51x10(-3)micromol/ml and 33.4microg/ml, respectively. The lysozyme recovered from the above separations had a purity of more than 85%, and retained 90% of its enzymatic activity.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for insulin-like growth factor-I using six-histidine tag fused proteins.

The fusion proteins of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and six-histidine tag (IGF-I-6H, 6H-IGF-I-6H) were cloned, expressed, purified and renatured, with their immunoreaction properties and biological activities intact. The binding kinetics between these fusion proteins and anti-IGF-I antibody or anti-6H antibody were studied using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) modes, which proved feasible in the measurement of human serum samples, were used to detect IGF-I with the help of the six-histidine tagged proteins. Furthermore, combining the production technique of the six-histidine tagged fusion protein with the competitive sandwich ELISA mode, using an enzyme labeled anti-6H antibody as a tracer, can be a universal immunochemical method to quantitate other polypeptides or proteins.

Multiple binding modes for dicationic Hoechst 33258 to DNA.

The binding of dicationic Hoechst 33258 (ligand) to DNA was characterized by means of the fluorescence spectra, fluorescence intensity titration, time-resolved fluorescence decay, light scattering, circular dichroism, and fluorescence thermal denaturation measurements, and two binding modes were distinguished by the experimental results. Type 1 binding has the stoichiometry of one ligand to more than 12 base pairs, and it is defined as quasi-minor groove binding which has the typical prolonged fluorescence lifetime of about 4.4 ns. In type 1 binding, planar conformation of the ligand is favorable. Type 2 binding with phosphate to ligand ratio (P/L) < 2.5 has the stoichiometry of one ligand to two phosphates. It is defined as a highly dense and orderly stacked binding with DNA backbone as the template. Electrostatic interactions between doubly protonated ligands and negatively charged DNA backbone play a predominant role in the type 2 binding mode. The characteristics of this type of binding result in a twisted conformation of the ligand that has a fluorescence lifetime of less than 1 ns. The results also indicate that the binding is in a cooperative manner primarily by stacking of the aromatic rings of the neighboring ligands. Type 1 binding is only observed for double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) with affinity constant of 1.83 x 10(7) M-1. In the type 2 binding mode, the binding affinity constants are 4.9 x 10(6) and 4.3 x 10(6) M-1 for dsDNA and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), respectively. The type 2 binding is base pair independent while the type 1 binding is base pair related. The experiments described in this paper revealed that the dication bindings are different from the monocation bindings reported by previous study. The dication binding leads to stronger aggregation at low ligand concentration and results in orderly arrangements of the ligands along DNA chains. Furthermore the dication binding is demonstrated to be beneficial for enhancing the DNA's stability.

Several concerns about the primer design in the universal molecular beacon real-time PCR assay and its application in HBV DNA detection.

A universal hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA detection kit is appealing for the worldwide diagnosis and monitoring of the treatment of different mutant types of hepatitis B virus. A sensitive and reproducible real-time PCR assay based on the universal molecular beacon (U-MB) technique was developed for the detection of HBV DNA in serum. The U-MB probe used in the assay has no interaction with the HBV DNA sequence. The U-MB technique not only reduced the cost of HBV detection but also had the potential for the development of a universal detection kit for different mutant HBV types and other DNA systems. To demonstrate its clinical utility, 90 serum samples were analyzed using the U-MB real-time PCR method. In the experiments we found that several crucial factors needed to be considered in the primer design, such as the avoidance of formation of severe primer-dimer and primer self-hairpin structure. With the optimized primer sets, satisfactory results were obtained for all the tested samples. We concluded that this assay would be an excellent candidate for a universal HBV DNA detection method.

A novel one cycle allele specific primer extension--molecular beacon displacement method for DNA point mutation detection with improved specificity.

We report here a new method for the real-time detection of DNA point mutations with molecular beacon as the fluorescence tracer and 3' (exo-) Bst DNA polymerase large fragment as the polymerase. The method is based on the mechanism of allele specific primer extension-strand displacement (ASPE-SD). To improve the specificity of the method only one cycle of the allele specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used that could largely eliminate the non-specific reactions between the primers and template of the "wrong" genotype. At first, the primer and molecular beacon both hybridize to the DNA template, and the molecular beacon emits intensive fluorescence. The role of 3' exonuclease excision of Bst DNA polymerase large fragment is utilized for primer extension. When 3'-termini matches its corresponding template, the primer would efficiently extend and replace the molecular beacon that would simultaneously return to its closed form leading to the quenching of the fluorescence. However, when 3'-termini of the primer mismatches its corresponding template primer extension and molecular beacon displacement would not happen and fluorescence of the hybridized molecular beacon holds the line without fluorescence quenching. This approach was fully demonstrated in synthetic template systems and applied to detect point mutation at codon 259, a possible point mutation site in exon 7 of p53 gene, obtained from human genomic DNA samples with unambiguous differentiation power.

Imidazole as a catalyst for in vitro refolding of enhanced green fluorescent protein.

Imidazole is a reagent widely used in protein purifying processes. Here, we reveal a novel chaperone-like activity for imidazole using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) as a model protein. Experimental results showed that imidazole acted as an effective catalyst for refolding of the chemically denatured EGFP and suppressor for the heat-induced aggregation of EGFP. The refolding kinetics was determined in real time. Both the recovering yield and refolding rate of denatured EGFP in the presence of imidazole were increased. The studies on elucidating the mechanism show that imidazole may catalyze the prolyl cis/trans isomerization and the possible mechanism was discussed. To our knowledge, there are no data on the effect of imidazole on protein folding. Considering the prolyl isomerization is the rate-limited step for refolding of most proteins and aggregation is a universal serious problem for biotechnology, imidazole thus represents a previous unknown type of protein-folding catalyst.

Universal molecular beacon-based tracer system for real-time polymerase chain reaction.

DNA diagnostic has been moving from expensive, low-throughput, multistep methods to inexpensive, higher throughput, closed-tube, and automated methods. Fluorescence is the favored signaling technology for such assays. In this method, we describe a universal molecular beacon (U-MB) as the fluorescent tracer in the real-time PCR technique. A 5'-universal template primer (5'-UT primer) has been designed with a tail in complementary to the loop and 5'-side arm sequence of U-MB at the 5'-end of forward target specific primer. As PCR cycles increase, a new DNA fragment with a 5'-UT primer tail is synthesized, which is used as the template for next PCR cycle. As the reverse primer extends to the 5'-UT primer tail, the U-MB hybridized is displaced and the fluorescence from the fluorophore of the U-MB is quenched, indicating that the allele-specific PCR is in progress. This tracing system combined with an allele-specific reverse primer and vent (exo-) DNA polymerase, a polymerase that lacks 3'- to 5'-exonuclease activity, was used for the detection of point mutations of base G in codon 259 (AGA) of exon 7 of p53 gene on a panel of breast cancer individuals.

Expression and characterization of insulin growth factor-I-enhanced green fluorescent protein fused protein as a tracer for immunoassay.

The insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is an important polypeptide hormone under investigation for body metabolism study and for doping detection. Here, we describe for the first time the expression of a recombinant fusion protein of IGF-I and the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). The genetic fusion approach enables preparation of conjugates with 1:1 stoichiometry and homogeneous structure. The fused protein (EGFP-IGF-I) was expressed as a soluble protein in cytoplasm of Escherichia coli and its fluorescence and immunoreaction properties were thoroughly characterized. Finally, we demonstrated the utility of the EGFP-IGF-I fusion protein for the fluorescence immunoassay of IGF-1. The linear range of the assay is 1.6 x 10(-8) to 2.0 x 10(-6) M with a detection limit of 1.6 x 10(-8) M. To our knowledge, this is the first time that EGFP has been used as a quantitative label in a fusion protein to develop a quantitative assay for IGF-I. Furthermore, the use of genetically engineered fusion proteins, which combine peptide hormones with fluorescent protein, can lead to a new labeling approach to a number of bioanalytical applications.

Ionene-dynamically coated capillary for analysis of urinary and recombinant human erythropoietin by capillary electrophoresis and online electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

In this article, a series of ionene polymers were synthesized and used to coat fused-silica capillaries for the separation of recombinant and urinary human erythropoietin (rhEPO and uEPO) standards by CE. The influence of the charge density of coatings on the separation of rhEPO and uEPO glycoforms was investigated. Then, we further studied the method for fast separation and detection of rhEPO and uEPO standards by CE-ESI-MS. The influence of several CE and MS operating parameters, such as the concentration of CE running buffer, applied external pressure, and the composition and flow rate of sheath liquid on CE-ESI-MS was studied. The results demonstrated that when the capillary was permanently coated with 6,6-ionene and the pH value of acetic acid-ammonium acetate running buffer was 4.80 and 5.50, respectively, a significantly reproducible separation was achieved for rhEPO and uEPO glycoforms. In the online CE-ESI-MS experiments, we not only achieved the online MS signal of uEPO, but also obtained baseline separation of three major rhEPO glycoforms successfully and reproducibly on the 6,6-ionene-coated capillaries. Furthermore, the standard mixture of rhEPO and uEPO was separated, and two incompletely resolved peaks that were identified to be rhEPO and uEPO by the unique MS "fingerprint" were obtained. Additionally, the molecular weight of rhEPO and uEPO were verified and compared to the results by MALDI-TOF-MS. It can be concluded that, in contrast to other indirect methods, the online CE-ESI-MS technique with the combination of the advantages of both CE and MS shows great potential for the separation and detection of rhEPO doping directly in competitive sports.

[Analysis of recombinant erythropoietin and its tryptic digest by capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry using capillary coated with 6,6-ionene].

The microheterogeneity of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) was analyzed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) using a capillary coated with 6,6-ionene. The applicability of a volatile electrolyte for fast analysis of tryptic fragments of rhEPO with online CE-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) was investigated, resulting in a reproducible separation of eleven rhEPO tryptic fragments within 22 min under the following conditions: running buffer 300 mmol/L acetic acid-ammonium acetate (HAc-NH4Ac), pH 4.80, separation voltage -15 kV and capillary temperature 25 degrees C. The proposed method is rapid and effective, and can be used for the structural analysis of related proteins.

An efficient immunoaffinity chromatographic method for extraction and purification of papaverine from samples of pericarpium papaveris and food products.

A highly selective immunoaffinity column was obtained by coupling anti-papaverine polyclonal antibodies to CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. It was found that the coupling efficiency and performance of the immunoaffinity column were greatly improved by prolonging the coupling reaction time from 3 h at 20 degrees C with shaking to incubation overnight at 4 degrees C after the 3 h shaking reaction. The pH and ionic strength were observed to be the most important factors that influence the binding of papaverine to the immunoaffinity column. Using 0.01 mol/L phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 8.3) and methanol-water (80:20, v/v) as the loading and eluting solutions, respectively, papaverine was first retained on the column and then quantitatively eluted out with a mean recovery of 86% at a loading concentration of 1 microg/mL. When applied to real samples of pericarpium papaveris and food products, the established immunoaffinity column showed high efficiency in removing the matrix interferences in the samples and satisfactory recovery results were obtained. The method was useful for extraction and purification of papaverine from related samples.

Analysis of isoflavone daidzein in Puerariae radix with micelle-mediated extraction and preconcentration.

Nonionic surfactant oligo(ethylene glycol) monoalkyl ether (Genapol X-080) was employed as an alternative and effective solvent for the extraction of daidzein from Puerariae radix for the first time. Optimum experimental conditions were established. With 5% Genapol X-080 (w/v), liquid/solid ratio of 25:1 (mL/g), and ultrasonic-assisted extraction for 45 min, the extraction percentage of daidzein reached the highest value. For the preconcentration of daidzein by cloud-point extraction (CPE), sodium chloride was added to the solution to facilitate the phase separation and increase the preconcentration factor by reducing the volume of the surfactant-rich phase. The preconcentration factor for daidzein was about 13. Satisfactory results were obtained for the analysis of daidzein from P. radix with this established method.

Reducing power: the measure of antioxidant activities of reductant compounds?

Electrochemical assay has been employed recently to study the activity of antioxidants; however, there is controversy as to whether reducing power fully characterizes the antioxidant activity. This study provides some essential further evidence on this point based on the reported data and mechanisms underlying the antioxidant functions as well as the anodic oxidation of phenolic antioxidants, indicating that further consideration and investigation should be made before reducing power is used as the absolute measure of antioxidant activity.

Study on the recognition of templates and their analogues on molecularly imprinted polymer using computational and conformational analysis approaches.

A simplified computational model was proposed to simulate the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP), removal of template and recognition of the template and its analogues by MIP. The MIPs with nicotinamide and iso-nicotinamide as templates were prepared using methacrylic acid as functional monomer. Based on our computational model, the interaction energies between the monomer and the template or its analogues were calculated, which were well correlated with the retention factors and imprinting factors obtained on HPLC columns packed with the corresponding MIP particles. The imprinting effects of the template and its analogues were also investigated from the viewpoint of conformational analysis. The computational data were successfully used to predict the chromatographic behaviour of some chemicals in separation on HPLC columns. We believe that the computational method will find application in designing monomers for MIP synthesis and in studying recognition of templates and their analogues on MIP.