BIOMATERIALS Plastic antibodies

Researchers conducted investigations to demonstrate that imprinting molecular memory on the surface of polymer nanoparticles created artificial antibodies that had the potential to recognize and neutralize a toxic peptide in vivo. These researchers created such molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in polymer nanoparticles for the toxic peptide melittin, the main component of bee venom. This process led to the creation of artificial antibodies that were used for the in vivo capture and neutralization of melittin. It was demonstrated MIPs possessed two of the most important features of biological antibodies, such as the ability to recognize and bind specific target molecules. MIPs needed to be in the nanometer size range and compatible with biological fluids to be injectable into the blood stream. The researchers adopted the strategy of synthesizing crosslinked, acrylamide-based MIP nanoparticles by a process based on precipitation polymerization using a small amount of surfactant.