Development of Amino Acids Functionalized SBA-15 for the Improvement of Protein Adsorption.

Ordered mesoporous materials and their modification with multiple functional groups are of wide scientific interest for many applications involving interaction with biological systems and biomolecules (e.g., catalysis, separation, sensor design, nano-science or drug delivery). In particular, the immobilization of enzymes onto solid supports is highly attractive for industry and synthetic chemistry, as it allows the development of stable and cheap biocatalysts. In this context, we developed novel silylated amino acid derivatives (Si-AA-NH2) that have been immobilized onto SBA-15 materials in biocompatible conditions avoiding the use of toxic catalyst, solvents or reagents. The resulting amino acid-functionalized materials (SBA-15@AA) were characterized by XRD, TGA, EA, Zeta potential, nitrogen sorption and FT-IR. Differences of the physical properties (e.g., charges) were observed while the structural ones remained unchanged. The adsorption of the enzyme lysozyme (Lyz) onto the resulting functionalized SBA-15@AA materials was evaluated at different pHs. The presence of different functional groups compared with bare SBA-15 showed better adsorption results, for example, 79.6 nmol of Lyz adsorbed per m2 of SBA-15@Tyr compared with the 44.9 nmol/m2 of the bare SBA-15.

Sol-gel process: the inorganic approach in protein imprinting.

Proteins play a central role in the signal transmission in living systems since they are able to recognize specific biomolecules acting as cellular receptors, antibodies or enzymes, being themselves recognized by other proteins in protein/protein interactions, or displaying epitopes suitable for antibody binding. In this context, the specific recognition of a given protein unlocks a range of interesting applications in diagnosis and in targeted therapies. Obviously, this role is already fulfilled by antibodies with unquestionable success. However, the design of synthetic artificial systems able to endorse this role is still challenging with a special interest to overcome limitations of antibodies, in particular their production and their stability. Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) are attractive recognition systems which could be an alternative for the specific capture of proteins in complex biological fluids. MIPs can be considered as biomimetic receptors or antibody mimics displaying artificial paratopes. However, MIPs of proteins remains a challenge due to their large size and conformational flexibility, their complex chemical nature with multiple recognition sites and their low solubility in most organic solvents. Classical MIP synthesis conditions result in large polymeric cavities and unspecific binding sites on the surface. In this review, the potential of the sol-gel process as inorganic polymerization strategy to overcome the drawbacks of protein imprinting is highlighted. Thanks to the mild and biocompatible experimental conditions required and the use of water as a solvent, the inorganic polymerization approach better suited to proteins than organic polymerization. Through numerous examples and applications of MIPs, we proposed a critical evaluation of the parameters that must be carefully controlled to achieve sol-gel protein imprinting (SGPI), including the choice of the monomers taking part in the polymerization.

Molecularly imprinted nanoparticles grafted to porous silica as chiral selectors in liquid chromatography.

The work presented here explores the grafting of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles (MIN) on silica beads for the development of new chiral stationary phases (CSP). Both solid-phase imprinting and precipitation polymerisation were tested for MIN synthesis though the latter approach was the only one that provided efficient chiral selectors. MIN particles were prepared by iniferter polymerisation initiated by UV radiation, using itaconic acid as functional monomer and ethylene dimethacrylate as cross-linker. This resulted in particles with an average size of 249.0±4.0nm which were covalently immobilised onto chromatographic silica beads. The resultant CSP based on the composite silica beads-MIN was capable of resolving the racemate of the antidepressant drug citalopram and also separating its major metabolites by liquid chromatography, with better efficiency and peak symmetry than other MIP based CSP. The methodology presented here allowed for the quantification of the pharmacologically active enantiomer (+)-(S)-citalopram (SCIT) and its main metabolites (+)-(S)-desmethylcitalopram (SDCIT) and (+)-(S)-didesmethylcitalopram (SDDCIT) in urine, registering mean recoveries that ranged from 91.5 to 103.7% with RSD values that were below 10% in all tested concentration levels (0.1, 0.75 and 5µgmL-1), which confirmed method suitability for the intended application.

Iniferter-mediated grafting of molecularly imprinted polymers on porous silica beads for the enantiomeric resolution of drugs.

A surface-imprinted chiral stationary phase for the enantiomeric resolution of the antidepressant drug, citalopram, is presented in this work. N, N'-diethylaminodithiocarbamoylpropyl(trimethoxy)silane has been used as silane iniferter for the surface functionalization of the solid silica support. A molecularly imprinted polymer thin film, in the nm scale, was then grafted on the silanized silica using itaconic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker in the presence of the template S-citalopram. The total monomer amount was calculated to obtain the desired thickness. Non-imprinted stationary phases were prepared similarly in the absence of S-citalopram. Characterization of the materials was carried out by scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, elemental analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Stationary phases have been applied to the chromatographic separation of the target. Conditions for best chromatographic resolution of the enantiomers were optimized, and it was found that a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of formate buffer (40 mM, pH 3) and acetonitrile (30:70 v/v) at 40 °C provided best results. Binding behaviour of the developed material was finally assessed by batch rebinding experiments. The obtained binding isotherm was fitted to different binding models being the Freundlich-Langmuir model, the one that best fitted the experimental data. The developed material has shown high selectivity for the target enantiomer, and the stationary phase could be undoubtedly exploited for chiral separation of the drug.