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The aim of this work was to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymer-poly ethylene glycol-folic acid (MIP-PEG-FA) nanoparticles for use as a controlled release carrier for targeting delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) to cancer cells. MIP nanoparticles were synthesized by a mini-emulsion polymerization technique and then PEG-FA was conjugated to the surface of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles showed high drug loading and encapsulation efficiency, 15.6 ± 0.8 and 100%, respectively. The imprinting efficiency of MIPs was evaluated by binding experiments in human serum. Good selective binding and recognition were found in MIP nanoparticles. In vitro drug release studies showed that MIP-PEG-FA have a controlled release of PTX, because of the presence of imprinted sites in the polymeric structure, which makes it is suitable for sustained drug delivery. The drug release from polymeric nanoparticles was indeed higher at acidic pH. The molecular structure of MIP-PEG-FA was confirmed by Hydrogen-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (H NMR), Fourier Transform InfraRed (FT-IR), and Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) spectroscopy, and their thermal behaviors by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS) results showed that nanoparticles have a smooth surface and spherical shape with an average size of 181 nm. MIP-PEG-FA nanoparticles showed a greater amount of intracellular uptake in folate receptor-positive cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 cells) in comparison with the non-folate nanoparticles and free PTX, with half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of 4.9 ± 0.9, 7.4 ± 0.5 and 32.8 ± 3.8 nM, respectively. These results suggest that MIP-PEG-FA nanoparticles could be a potentially useful drug carrier for targeting drug delivery to cancer cells., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In the present study, the modification of a polysulfone hollow fiber membrane with in situ molecularly imprinted sol-gel process (as a novel and one-step method) was prepared and investigated. 3-(propylmethacrylate)trimethoxysilane (3PMTMOS) as an inorganic precursor was used for preparation of molecularly imprinted sol-gel. The modified molecularly imprinted sol-gel hollow fiber membrane (MSHM) was used for the liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) of hippuric acid (HA) in human plasma and urine samples. MSHM as a selective, robust, and durable tool was used for at least 50 extractions without significant decrease in the extraction efficiency. The non-molecularly imprinted sol-gel hollow fiber membrane (NSHM) as blank hollow fiber membrane was prepared by the same process, only without HA. To achieve the best condition, influential parameters on the extraction efficiency were thoroughly investigated. The capability of this robust, green, and simple method for extraction of HA was successfully accomplished with LC/MS/MS. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) in human plasma and urine samples were 0.3 and 1.0nmolL(-1), respectively. The standard calibration curves were obtained within the concentration range 1-2000nmolL(-1) for HA in human plasma and urine. The coefficients of determination (r(2)) were ≥0.998. The obtained data exhibited recoveries were higher than 89% for the extraction of HA in human plasma and urine samples., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A novel in situ molecularly imprinted sol-gel nanomembrane using nylon 6 as backbone was prepared by the electrospinning technique and coupled on-line with high-performance liquid chromatography. The prepared electrospun membrane exhibited extensive selectivity toward acesulfame in the presence of some selected sweeteners in a beverage sample, while the porosity and mechanical stability remained. The prepared electrospun membrane could be applied for 35 consequence extractions without a significant change in extraction recovery, swelling, and flooding. To achieve the best condition and efficiency for on-line extraction, the effect of influential parameters was investigated. The limit of detection (signal/noise = 3:1) and limit of quantification (signal/noise = 10:1) were 0.6 and 2.0 ng/mL for acesulfame in the beverage samples, respectively. The linearity for the acesulfame was in the range of 2.0-250 ng/mL in beverage samples. The coefficients of determination values were ≥0.997 for all runs. The extraction recoveries of acesulfame in the beverage samples were between 80 and 85%., (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

In this work, a novel method based on in situ molecularly imprinted sol-gel for the surface modification of a polysulfone membrane (PSM) was developed. A modified molecularly imprinted sol-gel polysulfone membrane (MSM) was placed in a homemade plastic tube and coupled on-line with LC/MS/MS for the selective extraction and screening of l-Tyrosine (Tyr) as a tentative lung cancer biomarker in human plasma samples. The existence of molecularly imprinted sol-gel layers on both sides of a PSM was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). To evaluate the role of precursor in the extraction performance, repeatability, and selectivity of developed method, three precursors, 3-(propylmethacrylate) trimethoxysilane (P1), 3-(triethoxysilyl)-propylamine (P2), tetraethyl orthosilicate (P3), individually and together were used for treatment of PSM. Our investigation showed that a single precursor's route is more repeatable, straightforward, precise, accurate, and selective for the extraction of Tyr in plasma samples. Moreover, to achieve the best conditions and extraction efficiency, the effect of influential parameters, including the conditioning, washing, and elution of solvents, sample flow rate, loading time, desorption time, loading sample volume, salt effect, pH, and adsorption capacity for the most efficiently prepared membranes were truly investigated. The non-molecularly imprinted sol-gel polysulfone membrane (NSM) was prepared as a blank via the same process but in the absence of the Tyr. The LOD (S/N = 3/1) was 0.1 nmol L(-1) and the LOQ (S/N = 10/1) was 0.34 nmol L(-1) for Tyr in the plasma samples. The linearity for the Tyr was in the range of 0.34-2000 nmol L(-1) in the plasma samples. The coefficients of determination values were ≥0.998 for all runs. The extraction recovery was between 80%-85% for Tyr in the plasma samples. In addition, MSM could be used for up to 50 extractions without a significant change in recovery percentage.

In this study, a novel sample clean-up technique based on the molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction procedure is described for the determination of trifluoperazine (TFP) in biological fluids. The water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared by using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, chloroform as porogen and TFP as the template molecule. The novel imprinted polymer was used as a solid-phase extraction sorbent for the extraction of TFP from human serum and urine samples. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the polymer were evaluated. The selectivity of MIPs was evaluated by checking several substances with molecular structures similar to the template. The limits of detection and quantification for TFP in urine samples were 0.06 and 0.2 µg/L, respectively. These limits for TFP in serum samples were 0.15 and 0.4 µg/L, respectively. The recovery values for serum and urine samples were higher than 92 and 93%, respectively., (© The Author [2013]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

In this paper, a novel method is described for automated determination of human insulin in biological fluids using principle of sequential injection on a molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) cartridge as a sample clean-up technique combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared using methacrylic acid as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker, chloroform as a porogen and insulin as a template molecule. The imprinted polymers were then employed as the solid-phase extraction sorbent for on-line extraction of insulin from human plasma samples. To achieve the best condition, influential parameters on the extraction efficiency were thoroughly investigated. Rapid and simple analysis of the hormone was successfully accomplished through the good selectivity of the prepared sorbent coupled with HPLC. Limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 0.2 ng mL(-1), 0.7 ng mL(-1), and 0.03 ng mL(-1), 0.1 ng mL(-1) were obtained in plasma and urine respectively. The obtained data exhibited the great recoveries for extraction of insulin from human plasma and pharmaceutical samples, higher than 87%., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In spite of the increasing usages number of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in many scientific applications, the theoretical aspects of participating intra molecular forces are not fully understood. This work investigates effects of the electrostatic force, the Mulliken charge and the role of cavity's backbone atoms on the selectivity of MIPs. Moreover, charge distribution, which is a computational parameter, was proposed for the prediction of the selectivity coefficients of MIP-based sensors. In the computational approaches and experimental study, methacrylic acid (MAA) was chosen as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the cross linker for hydroxyzine and cetirizine imprinted polymers. Ab initio, DFT B3LYP method was carried out on molecular optimization. With regard to results obtained from molecules optimization and hydrogen bonding properties, possible configurations of 1:n (n≤5) template/monomer complexes were designed and optimized. The binding energy for each complex in gas phase was calculated. Depending on the most stable configuration, hydroxyzine and cetirizine imprinted polymer models were designed. The calculations including the porogen were also investigated. The theoretical charge distributions for the template and some potential interfering molecules were calculated. The results showed a correlation between the selectivity coefficients and the theoretical charge distributions. The results surprisingly show that charge distribution based model was able to predict the selectivity coefficients of MIP based potentiometric sensors., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a novel technique is described for determination of lamivudine in biological fluids by molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as the sample clean-up method joint with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). MIPs were prepared using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker, acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran as porogen and lamivudine as the template molecule. The new imprinted polymer was used as a molecular sorbent for the separation of lamivudine from human serum and urine. Molecular recognition properties, binding capacity and selectivity of the MIPs were evaluated and the results showed that the obtained MIPs have a high affinity for lamivudine in aqueous medium. HPLC analyses showed that the extraction of lamivudine from serum and urine by MIPs had a linear calibration curve in the range of 60-700μg/L with excellent precisions of 2.73% for serum and 2.60% for urine. The limit of detection and quantization of lamivudine was 19.34 and 58.6μg/L in serum and 7.95 and 24.05μg/L in urine respectively. MIP extraction provided about 10 fold LOQ improvement in serum and 5 fold LOQ improvement in urine samples. The recoveries of lamivudine in serum and urine samples were found to be 84.2-93.5% and 82.5-90.8% respectively. Due to the high precision and accuracy, this method may be the UV-HPLC choice with MIP extraction for bioequivalence analysis of lamivudine in serum and urine., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The applicability of an on-line solid phase extraction method using molecularly imprinted monolithic column was developed for the assay of tramadol (TRD) in urine and plasma samples. The monolithic column was prepared by using TRD as the template, methacrylic acid (MAA) as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the cross-linker and chloroform as the porogen with in situ molecular imprinting polymerization technique. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the monolithic column were evaluated. Chromatographic analysis of TRD after on-line clean-up of samples was performed by reversed-phase HPLC on an ACE column with ultraviolet detection at 218nm. The present work was successfully applied for automated simple analysis of TRD in urine and plasma samples with high recoveries between 90.5-93.1% and 93.3-96.0%, respectively. The results revealed that in concentration up to 500ng/mL of dextromethorphan (DEX), timolol (TMO) and O-desmethyltramadol (M1), the recoveries were not reduced more than 4.3% and 4.0% for plasma and urine samples, respectively. The limit of detection (S/N=3) and limit of quantification (S/N=10) for TRD in urine samples were 0.03ng/mL and 0.10ng/mL, and in plasma samples were 0.3 and 1.0ng/mL, respectively. Inter-column precision of the assays (n=3) for urine and plasma samples at the 100ng/mL TRD level were 4.0% and 4.2%, respectively., (Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Water-compatible imprinted nanoparticles were prepared for carbamazepine as a template and used for the selective extraction and controlled release of carbamazepine. Assay materials and drug delivery carriers were typically used in aqueous environments, so it is generally preferable to prepare solvent-free molecularly imprinted nanoparticles in water using the miniemulsion polymerization method. The present work investigates a bio-analytical strategy generically applicable to imprinted materials for molecular recognition studies, including equilibrium and non-equilibrium binding, and release experiments, increasing the knowledge of the molecular interactions between the template molecules and imprinted nanoparticles. The results showed that the imprinted nanoparticles exhibited a higher binding level and slower release rate than non-imprinted nanoparticles. The selectivity of imprinted nanoparticles for carbamazepine studied in comparison with an analogue compound, oxcarbazepine, the main metabolite of carbamazepine. The recovery and selectivity of carbamazepine in human serum was determined to be 100%, 1.7 times that of oxcarbazepine. The results indicated that carbamazepine-imprinted nanoparticles are appropriate for serum level determination of the drug in therapeutic range. The template to functional monomer ratio as a key factor controlling the recognition and release kinetic mechanism of imprinted nanoparticles is discussed. The imprinted nanoparticles prepared at the appropriate template to functional monomer mole ratio (2:8) exhibited the best drug affinity (5.1 times higher) and a slower drug release rate due to the interaction of carbamazepine with the imprinted cavities within the nanoparticles. Loaded imprinted nanoparticles as drug reservoirs were able to prolong carbamazepine release, in 1% wt sodium dodecyl sulfate aqueous solution, for more than 8 days.

Imprinted polymers are now being increasingly considered for active biomedical uses such as drug delivery. In this work, the use of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in designing new drug delivery devices was studied. Imprinted polymers were prepared from methacrylic acid (functional monomer), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (cross-linker), and bromhexine (as a drug template) using bulk polymerization method. The influence of the template/functional monomer proportion and pH on the achievement of MIPs with pore cavities with a high enough affinity for the drug was investigated. The polymeric devices were further characterized by FT-IR, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and binding experiments. The imprinted polymers showed a higher affinity for bromhexine and a slower release rate than the non-imprinted polymers. The controlled release of bromhexine from the prepared imprinted polymers was investigated through in vitro dissolution tests by measuring absorbance at λ (max) of 310 nm by HPLC-UV. The dissolution media employed were hydrochloric acid at the pH level of 3.0 and phosphate buffers, at pH levels of 6.0 and 8.0, maintained at 37.0 and 25.0 ± 0.5 °C. Results from the analyses showed the ability of MIP polymers to control the release of bromhexine In all cases The imprinted polymers showed a higher affinity for bromhexine and a slower release rate than the non-imprinted polymers. At the pH level of 3.0 and at the temperature of 25 °C, slower release of bromhexine imprinted polymer occurred.

In this paper, a novel method is described for automated determination of dextromethorphan in biological fluids using molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) as a sample clean-up technique combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, chloroform as porogen and dextromethorphan as template molecule. These imprinted polymers were used as solid-phase extraction sorbent for the extraction of dextromethorphan from human plasma samples. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the MIP cartridges were evaluated. The high selectivity of the sorbent coupled to the high performance liquid chromatographic system permitted a simple and rapid analysis of this drug in plasma samples with limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 0.12 ng/mL and 0.35 ng/mL, respectively. The MIP selectivity was evaluated by analyzing of the dextromethorphan in presence of several substances with similar molecular structures and properties. Results from the HPLC analyses showed that the recoveries of dextromethorphan using MIP cartridges from human plasma samples in the range of 1-50 ng/mL were higher than 87%., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a novel method is described for the determination of tramadol in biological fluids using molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) as the sample clean-up technique combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, chloroform as porogen and tramadol as template molecule. The novel imprinted polymer was used as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent for the extraction of tramadol from human plasma and urine. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the polymer have been evaluated. The optimal conditions for the MIP cartridges were studied. The MIP selectivity was evaluated by checking several substances with similar molecular structures to that of tramadol. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for tramadol in urine samples were 1.2 and 3.5 microg L(-1), respectively. These limits for tramadol in plasma samples were 3.0 and 8.5 microg L(-1), respectively. The recoveries for plasma and urine samples were higher than 91%., (2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A computational approach was proposed to study monomer-template interactions in a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) in order to gain insight at the molecular level into imprinting polymer selectivity, regarding complex formation between template and monomer at the pre-polymerisation step. This is the most important step in MIP preparation. In the present work, chlorphenamine (CPA), diphenhydramine (DHA) and methacrylic acid (MAA), were chosen as the template, non-template, and monomer, respectively. The attained complexes were optimised, and changes in the interaction energies, atomic charges, IR spectroscopy results, dipole moment, and polarisability were studied. The effects of solvent on template-monomer interactions were also investigated. According to a survey of the literature, this is the first work in which dipole moment and polarisability were used to predict the types of interactions existing in pre-polymerisation complexes. In addition, the density functional tight-binding (DFTB) method, an approximate version of the density functional theory (DFT) method that was extended to cover the London dispersion energy, was used to calculate the interaction energy.