Mesoporous polymeric microspheres with high affinity for phosphorylated biomolecules
Abstract
Phosphate plays a central role in the environment and in biology. This has led to demand for specific phosphate receptor which can be used to sense, enrich or separate phosphate and phosphorylated molecules from complex mixture. Here, we report an approach for the production of phospho-affinity porous beads with controllable size and pore structure leading to significantly improved chromatographic properties. The beads were prepared by polymerization of bis-imidazolium based host monomer and crosslinker inside the pores of macroporous silica beads that post-etching resulted in mesoporous polymer replicas. The silica precursor, silica-polymer composite and porous polymer replica were characterized by using SEM, IR, optical microscope and thermogravimetric analysis. Bis-imidazolium functionalized based materials were capable of binding and enriching the signaling lipid sphingosine-1-phosphate from plasma samples. Moreover, these engineered materials combined with artificial receptors can recognize phosphorylated amino acids/peptides and are applicable to selective recognition of a broad class of phosphorylated biomolecules.
