A dual-step immobilization/imprinting approach to prepare magnetic molecular imprinted polymers for selective removal of human serum albumin

One viable solution to improve the conformational stability of template proteins is to use multiple, weaker modes of action to immobilize proteins on the surfaces of a solid support. Herein, we introduce a novel surface imprinting technique for human serum albumin (HSA) by a dual immobilization/imprinting strategy. Specifically, HSA was first conjugated to the surfaces of magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles through a reversible aldmine condensation reaction . Dopamine (DA) was then used to imprint the protein template via an auto-polymerization reaction in biocompatible aqueous media. The resultant magnetic molecular imprinted polymers (MMIPs) possess high adsorption capacity (70.2 mg g −1 ), superior selectivity ( IF  = 4.54), and rapid capturing kinetics to HSA (within 20 min). We successfully demonstrate the practical applicability of MMIPs to the selective removal of HSA from human serum sample. Our work offers a novel and robust solution to develop proteins imprinted materials with high binding capacity and selectivity. We anticipate such materials will find wide applications to protein detection or removal in diverse real-life clinical and biological samples.