Protein Conformational Studies for Macromolecularly Imprinted Polymers

CD is used to clearly show the negative impact of common ligands on the overall conformation of BSA, a typical protein template in macromolecularly imprinted polymers. This change occurs at concentrations far lower than those generally used in the literature. These findings are important as they offer insight into a potential fundamental reason for the lack of success in protein imprinting to date despite significant interest from the scientific community. Systematic circular dichroism studies unambiguously demonstrate that frequently employed monomers have deleterious effects on the secondary structure of BSA. If the template structure is being altered prior to polymerization, specific recognition cannot be achieved. These results are significant as they provide a rational explanation for limited success in macromolecularly imprinted polymers.