Gels Mimicking Antibodies in Their Selective Recognition of Proteins and Its Potential Use for Protein Crystallization - Molecules: Nucleation, Aggregation and Crystallization - page 11

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Gels Mimicking Antibodies in
Their Selective Recognition
of Proteins and Its Potential
Use for Protein Crystallization*
Jan Sedzik † ,Nasim Ghasemzadeh ‡ ,Fred Nyberg ‡
and Stellan Hjertén §
Using a unique molecular-imprinting method we show in this article that human
growth hormone, ribonuclease and myoglobin from horse, lysozyme, hemoglo-
bin and albumin can be adsorbed selectively, indicating that the method may be
universal or at least applicable to a great number of proteins. A gel with specific
adsorption of three model proteins was synthesized in order to demonstrate that
the beds can be employed to remove (traces of) several proteins contaminating
a sample (“negative purification”). The degree of selective recognition is high,
judging from the fact that myoglobin from horse, but not that from whale,
was adsorbed onto a column designed to bind specifically the former protein.
This selectivity is noteworthy since these two proteins have similar amino acid
sequences and 3-D structures. The method for the synthesis of the specific gels
Protein Crystallization Facility, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society,
NOVUM, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and Department of Chemical
Engineering and Technology, Protein Crystallization Facility, KTH, Teknikringen 28,
100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [e-mail].
‡ Uppsala University, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, P.O. Box 591, 75124
Uppsala, Sweden. E-mails: [e-mail], [e-mail].
§ Corresponding author, Department of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry, Uppsala University,
Biomedical Center, P.O. Box 576, 75123 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: [e-mail].