Abstract :
[en] In the hope of identifying new drug candidates, we aim to develop new potential methods which allow the selective separation of bioactive components from herbs. Previous published research works mention molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) could effectively mimic the recognition patterns exhibited by the natural receptors and thus could recognize analogues with similar bioactivities [1,2,3]. MIPs are stable polymers comprising specific recognition sites endowed with a predetermined selectivity for a template molecule. MIPs used in the drug discovery process have to exhibit cross-reactivity instead of absolute specificity for their template molecule. Our investigations try to lightly modify the rigidity of the MIPs imprinted cavities which should extend the recognition towards analogues to the template used for MIP synthesis.
Working conditions study was performed with a reference MIP, obtained via bulk polymerization, using quercetin as template molecule, acrylamide (AA) as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as cross-linker with tetrahydrofuran (THF) as porogen. Further, we tested new synthesis strategies in order to develop MIPs which exhibit 'Class Selectivity' regarding a family of compounds close to quercetin, the template molecule.
The synthesized MIPs assessment was carried out by their use as solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbents and permitted to confirm the presence of imprinted cavities. The performances of MIPs versus non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) were defined by calculus of the Imprinting Effect (IF = Rate of retention on the MIP / Rate of retention on the NIP). High IF values (>3) allowed to confirm the successful imprinting of the MIPs.
Consecutively, MIPs were packed in HPLC columns in order to study their selectivity towards quercetin analogues. The obtained experimental data highlights the selectivity modulation thanks to original synthesis strategies, giving rise to optimistic perspectives related to the modulation project of MIPs' reactivity.
References:
[1] L. Zhu, L. Chen, X. Xu, Application of a Molecularly Imprinted Polymer for the Effective Recognition of Different Anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors, Analytical Chemistry 75 (2003) 6381-6387.
[2] L. Zhu, X. Xu, Selective separation of active inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor from Caragana Jubata by molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction, Journal of Chromatography A 991 (2003) 151-158.
[3] M. Huang, W. Pang, J. Zhang, S. Lin, J. Hu, A target analogue imprinted polymer for the recognition of antiplatelet active ingredients in Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae by LC/MS/MS, Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 58 (2012) 12-18.
