Application of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers in Purification and Separation for Epothilones

A highly effective purification process combined with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) was developed to selectively isolate Epothilones (Epos) from a complex milieu. The MIPs of Epos were successfully synthesized by precipitation polymerization, and the optimal ratio of the template molecule to functional monomer and cross-linker was 1: 4: 20 (with the molar ratio). Under the optimized condition, the resulted products were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The binding properties of the MIPs were evaluated by the adsorption kinetics and static adsorption. From the correlation coefficients (R-2) of the fitting models, the equilibrium data fitted well to Freundlich model (R-2 = 0.9987), indicating multilayer adsorption. Finally, we successfully applied the MIPs in the solid-phase extraction (SPE) process of Epos, and its purity was improved more than 40 % than the origin. It achieved an effectively selective Epos cleanup procedure, sequentially established a favorable foundation for later research on Epos.