Amino Acid Imprinted UiO-66s for Highly Recognized Adsorption of Small Angiotensin-Converting-Enzyme-Inhibitory Peptides

Introduction of targeted defects into microporous UiO-66s for manipulating their three-dimensional size and surface properties can endow them with adsorption and separation areas involving angiotensin-converting-enzyme-inhibitory (ACE-inhibitory) peptides. Three hydrophobic amino acids (AAs) (i.e., proline (Pro), phenylalanine (Phe), and tryptophan (Trp)) having different physical/chemical properties were applied to in situ tailor defects in UiO-66 through targeted incoordination of missing linkers or missing nodes. Characterization results revealed a uniform oval shape of the developed defects with lengths ranging from 1.8 to 3.1 nm, which was also highly consistent with our molecular simulation. Among these three defective UiO-66s, Phe and Trp imprinted UiO-66s significantly promoted the adsorption affinity of small ACE-inhibitory peptides (uptake: 1.25 mmol g–1 for DDFF and 1.37 mmol g–1 for DDWW) and ultrahigh selectivity for DDFF (249) or DDWW (279) from inactive KKKK solution based on a lock-and-key mechanism. As a result, the imprinted UiO-66 showed an enrichment capacity for ACE-inhibitory peptides about eight times higher than that of pristine UiO-66. Therefore, the amino acid imprinting strategy endorsed by its facile and discerning ability can be envisioned to be of great value for small functional peptide separation and oriented enrichment in biomedicines.