Chemistry & Biology
Volume 3, Issue 6, June 1996, Pages 471-477
Journal home page for Chemistry & Biology

Research paper
Artificial antibodies to corticosteroids prepared by molecular imprinting

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1074-5521(96)90095-2Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

Background: Molecular imprinting can be used to prepare antibody and receptor mimics. We have previously shown that acrylic acid polymers can be imprinted to recognize a variety of small molecules. Here, we show that molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) can selectively recognize steroid structures.

Results: Artificial antibodies mimicking the binding performance of natural anticorticosteroid antibodies have been prepared using a molecular imprinting protocol with either cortisol or corticosterone as a target molecule. The binding characteristics of a range of structurally related ligands were estimated using a form of radioimmunoassay. The antibody mimics were found to be highly selective for the ligands used in their preparation and the cross-reactivities with compounds of related structure resembled those obtained in studies with natural antibodies.

Conclusions: The binding properties of MIPs, prepared against corticosteroids, exhibit strong similarities to those of naturally raised antibodies. Such artificial antibodies may serve as a useful complement to their natural counterparts in studies of corticosteroid binding events.

Keywords

corticosteroids
de novo design
molecular imprinting
molecular recognition

Cited by (0)