Gels Mimicking Antibodies in Their Selective Recognition of Proteins and Its Potential Use for Protein Crystallization - Molecules: Nucleation, Aggregation and Crystallization - page 29

only slightly affected (Fig. 5). The selectivity of the bed was, accordingly,
high. During a test period of one month a “hemoglobin column” was used
in 14 experiments without loss of selectivity. We have used the imprinting
approach not only to “fish out” a particular protein “biomarker” (for diag-
nosis and prognosis of diseases) but also a particular virus or bacterium
(Takátsy et al ., 2006a; Bacskay et al ., 2006 ) . Important studies on molec-
ular imprinting of proteins are also found in Guo et al . (2005) and
Hawkins et al . (2006). Interestingly, the artificial gel antibodies can also
be synthesized as monoliths, i.e. the granulation and the packing steps are
eliminated (Rezeli et al ., 2006).
Potential applications
A comparison of the three chromatograms in Fig. 2 shows that the human
growth hormone was adsorbed only on the gel prepared in the presence of
the hormone. The gel grains thus behave as beads to which antibodies
have been attached and can therefore probably be used in RIA (radioim-
munoassay) or ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). If so, animal
experiments aimed at the generation of antibodies can be avoided not only
in these assays but also in other experiments, including receptor studies.
The high selectivity of the gels described herein makes it tempting to use
them also in the area of biosensors, where the binding can be studied by
rapid response from transducers based on different principles. It is rela-
tively easy to investigate whether the gels, in practice, can be utilized in
such analytical systems. More time-consuming experiments are required
if the gels are to be designed to function as artificial enzymes. Those inter-
ested in these and related areas should read an excellent article by
Mosbach and Ramström (1996).
We have also used the molecular imprinting approach to synthesize
enzyme reactors, particularly because they have a great advantage com-
pared to conventional enzyme reactors. They can be regenerated, follow-
ing the unavoidable denaturation of the enzyme, by desorbing the enzyme
and adding a crude extract of the enzyme because the high selectivity of
the artificial gel antibodies (the imprinted gels) is a guarantee that only the