Biomedical subjects

A G Mayes

Publications and source records attributed to A G Mayes.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Synthetic strategies for the generation of molecularly imprinted organic polymers.

Molecular imprinting is a method of inducing molecular recognition properties in synthetic polymers in response to the presence of a template species during formation of the three-dimensional structure of the polymer. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) prepared in this way have been termed "plastic antibodies" and combine the robustness of the polymer scaffold with binding properties more readily associated with biological receptors. Smart polymers of this type may find applications in drug delivery, controlled release and monitoring of drug and metabolite concentrations. In this review the main synthetic strategies used in the preparation of imprinted organic polymers are described in terms of the chemical principles used in the templating step. These are illustrated with examples taken from the literature and are classified as covalent, semi-covalent, non-covalent, metal-mediated and non-polar. Finally strategies for the selection of monomers, optimisation and modification of the properties of imprinted polymers are reviewed.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed2001

Novel MIP formats.

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Microscopy, Electron, Scanning↗

PubMed1998

A holographic sensor based on a rationally designed synthetic polymer.

A new silver halide-containing holographic recording material has been designed and developed specifically for holographic chemical sensors. The hologram enables very small volume changes to be measured in a polymer layer throughout which the hologram is located. The holographic film is based on a fine-grain silver bromide emulsion suspended in a poly(vinyl alcohol) matrix crosslinked with Cr(III) ions. Cross-linking gives the material sufficient spatial integrity to allow a holographic image to be recorded, while maintaining adequate porosity and elasticity of the polymer matrix for sensing applications. The new material has been characterized with respect to its response to pH and compared with a traditional gelatin holographic film. The response to some ions and small molecules typically found in analytical samples has also been measured. Functional groups introduced covalently into the poly(vinyl alcohol) matrix transform the base matrix into a pH-responsive polymer with predictable swelling properties and which can be further derivatized to incorporate specific ligands. A rationally designed holographic sensor for trypsin has been developed from chemically synthesized artificial polymers. A trypsin substrate, the poly(amino acid) poly(L-lysine), was incorporated into poly(vinyl alcohol) holograms to create a 'designed' holographic material which was degraded in a concentration-dependent manner by trypsin. Extensions of this approach to other hydrolytic enzymes are briefly discussed.

Animals↗

PubMed1994

Sugar binding polymers showing high anomeric and epimeric discrimination obtained by noncovalent molecular imprinting.

Noncovalent molecular imprinting of sugar compounds in ethylene glycol dimethacrylate-methacrylic acid copolymers yielded materials containing highly selective sugar binding sites. Investigation of a range of polymers demonstrated that the resulting polymer imprints have a high degree of both anomeric and epimeric selectivity favoring the original print molecule. In HPLC assays, a polymer imprinted using p-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-galactoside could separate the alpha and beta anomers of the same compound with near baseline resolution. A polymer imprinted using p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactoside showed similar results but with the beta anomers retained longer as expected. Anomeric discrimination of closely related sugars was also possible, with the degree of separation depending on the structural resemblance to the print molecule. Similarly, a polymer imprinted with p-nitrophenyl-alpha-L-fucoside could separate alpha/beta mixtures of p-nitrophenyl-L-fucoside with baseline resolution. Using radioligand displacement assays a polymer imprinted using octyl-alpha-D-glucoside was shown to bind methyl-alpha-D-glucoside with a 40-fold higher affinity than that for the beta-anomer. The epimeric selectivity was even more impressive: methyl-alpha-D-mannoside and methyl-alpha-D-galactoside had 130- and 240-fold lower affinity, respectively, than methyl-alpha-D-glucoside. The results are discussed in relation to possible uses of such polymers in separation and analysis.

Carbohydrates↗