A facile and general approach for preparation of glycoprotein-imprinted magnetic nanoparticles with synergistic selectivity

•A facile and general approach to imprint glycoprotein in mild conditions.•Combination of boronate affinity and surface imprinting technique to prepare polymers with synergistic selectivity.•Directly aldehyde-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles utilized as supports to simplify the preparation procedure.

In light of the significance of glycoprotein biomarkers for early clinical diagnostics and treatments of diseases, it is essential to develop efficient and selective enrichment platforms for glycoproteins. In this study, we present a facile and general strategy to prepare the boronate affinity-based magnetic imprinted nanoparticles. Boronic acid ligands were first grafted on the directly aldehyde-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles through amidation reaction. Then, template glycoproteins were immobilized on the boronic acid-modified magnetic nanoparticles via boronate affinity binding. Subsequently, a thin layer of dopamine was formed to coat the surface of magnetic nanoparticles through self-polymerization. After the template glycoproteins were removed, the cavities that can specific bind the template glycoproteins were fabricated. Adopting horseradish peroxidase as model template, the effects of imprinting conditions as well as the properties and performance of the obtained products were investigated. The resultant imprinted materials exhibit highly favorable features, including uniform surface morphology with thin imprinted shell of about 8 nm, super-paramagnetic property, fast kinetics of 40 min, high adsorption capacity of 60.3 mg g−1, and satisfactory reusability for at least five cycles of adsorption-desorption without obvious deterioration. Meanwhile, the obtained magnetic imprinted nanoparticles could capture target glycoprotein from nonglycoproteins, but also from other glycoproteins because the synergistic selectivity of boronate affinity and imprinting effect. In addition, the facile preparation method shows feasibility in the imprinting of different glycoproteins.

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