We demonstrated the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with binding affinity toward a target protein, ribonuclease A (RNase) by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of acrylic acid, acrylamide, and N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide in the presence of RNase. The binding activity of the MIPs was evaluated by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of the MIP thin layers prepared on the gold-coated sensor chips. The MIPs prepared by ATRP (MIP-ATRP) had a binding affinity toward RNase with larger binding amount compared to MIPs prepared by conventional free radical polymerization methods (MIP-RP). Moreover, protein selectivity was evaluated using reference proteins (cytochrome c, myoglobin, and α-lactalbumin) and was confirmed in MIP-ATRP of optimum film thickness determined experimentally to be 15-30 nm; however, protein selectivity was not achieved in all MIP-RP. We have shown that ATRP is powerful technique for preparing protein recognition materials by molecular imprinting.
