[Separation and recognition of biomacromolecule by molecular imprinting technique]

Molecular imprinting technique is a novel technique based on mimicking specific action of antibody-antigen. The emergence and the development of the technique are reviewed in this article. The focuses of this article include the introductions of the synthesis conditions, the comparisons of the various approaches on preparation methods as well as the recognition mechanisms of the biomacromolecule imprinted polymers. The primary synthetic methods include the embed technique, the surface imprinting procedure and the epitope approach. The epitope approach is based on using a short peptide as a template that represents only part of a larger peptide or protein, which in turn can be recognized by the synthesized polymer. This approach for the development of the biomacromolecule imprinted polymers selective to proteins is attractive from an economic viewpoint: a small peptide is usually less expensive, and the quantity necessary for the polymer preparation is more readily available than that of the corresponding protein. In the end, the limitations and the prospective applications of this biomacromolecular imprinted technique are also discussed.