Separation of baculoviruses using molecularly imprinted polymer hydrogels

ABSTRACTThe goal of this research is to develop molecular imprinted polymers (MIP) for biomimetic recognition of viruses. Our experimental results indicate that hydrogels can be produced, which can specifically and selectively bind recombinant baculoviruses. Although it is expected that imprinted cavities will be distorted due to the swelling of the hydrogel in water, our experiments show that even the swollen gels exhibit remarkable affinity toward recombinant baculovirus. The proposed methodologies for the synthesis and characterization of MIPs thus offer exciting avenues for the development of virus recognition techniques. The virus MIPs must function in aqueous environments. Our approach employs a more flexible non-covalent imprinting method, starting from a readily available polyamine polymer, and both MIP synthesis and testing are performed in aqueous solutions. The development of a virus imprinted MIP, which would apply to the identification, classification, and removal of viruses. This is currently a very difficult task, but the need is widespread in diverse sectors, including national security, human and animal health, crop protection, and biologics production. The development of general methods using MIPs capable of specific recognition of biological analytes would have an enormous value in medicine and bioanalytics.