Polyacrylamide gels with electrostatic functional groups for the molecular imprinting of lysozyme

The system of polyacrylamide incorporated with methacrylic acid and 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate was studied for the possibility of imprinting of lysozyme. The results show that approximately 27% (w/w) of the lysozyme template was not able to be extracted from the molecularly imprinted acrylamide polymers. The amount of the lysozyme template able to be extracted was increased by the addition of methacrylic acid. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), which was prepared with 0.573 M acrylamide, 0.573 M methacrylic acid and 0.573 M 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate at a total solution concentration of 20% (w/w), was able to adsorb 83% more lysozyme than the non-imprinted polymer. Selectivity of MIP was also studied. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.