Sensing HIV related protein using epitope imprinted hydrophilic polymer coated quartz crystal microbalance

We have developed a biomimetic sensor for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) related protein (glycoprotein 41, gp41) based on epitope imprinting technique. gp41 is the transmembrane protein of HIV-1 and plays an important role in membrane fusion between viruses and infected cells. It is an important index for determining the extent of HIV-1 disease progression and the efficacy of therapeutic intervention. In this work, dopamine was used as the functional monomer and polymerized on the surface of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) chip in the presence of template, a synthetic peptide with 35 amino acid residues, analogous to residues 579-613 of the gp41. This process resulted in grafting a hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film on the QCM chip. QCM measurement showed that the resulting MIP film not only had a great affinity towards the template peptide, but also could bind the corresponding gp41 protein specifically. The dissociation constant (K(d)) of MIP for the template peptide was calculated to be 3.17 nM through Scatchard analysis, which was similar to those of monoclonal antibodies. Direct detection of the gp41 was achieved quantitatively using the resulting MIP-based biomimetic sensor. The detection limit of gp41 was 2 ng/mL, which was comparable to the reported ELISA method. In addition, the practical analytical performance of the sensor was examined by evaluating the detection of gp41 in human urine samples with satisfactory results.