Protein glycosylation is potentially involved in all aspects of human growth and development. Aberrant/defective glycosylation of glycoprotein is undoubtedly a hallmark to diagnose all human diseases. Owing to its presence in low abundance, the effective qualitative and quantitative assessment of glycoproteins entails enrichment methods. Molecularly imprinted materials (MIMs) technology has long held promises as capable of competing with antibodies by acting as chemically selective species in diagnostic assays, sensors and affinity separations/purifications. MIMs offer convincing advantages of low cost, high stability and do not require cold-chain logistics, contrary to biodegradable antibodies as it is expensive and required animals for preclinical treatment. Moreover, the synthetic nature of MIMs readily allows the incorporation of integrated signalling functionalities (colored, fluorescent, electroactive, etc.) during synthesis without affecting molecular recognition. Replacing it as an effective substitute for antibodies involving diagnostics or other health-related applications, MIMs must share key characteristics with their biomolecular counterparts, such as: aqueous solubility, size, affinity and selectivity for the target analyte. In order to satisfy all these criteria, it is important to prepare MIMs in the form of nanoparticles in a reproducible, controlled and scalable method. The nanoMIPs (nanoparticles of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers) produced by solid-phase synthesis, behaves as plastic antibodies, that is capable of selective discrimination and can be an ideal tool for glycoprotein enrichment. The present era is one in which diseases are constantly erupting, and researchers are baffled to obtain a quick and reliable technique to diagnose the illness. Since MIMs are proven to act as plastic antibodies, these materials can play a significant role in the selective and sensitive diagnostic of diseases. The present project was aimed at the preparation of synthetic nanoreceptors (nanoMIPs) which could be used as a better alternative in the efficient glycoprotein enrichment methods. Such nanoreceptors, behaving like antibodies, may overcome the current limitations, provided the enrichment of specific glycan subclasses, within studies of the glycoproteome are achieved. The preparation of the receptors will proceed through solid-phase synthesis of imprinted polymer nanoparticles, with the potential to deliver entities with size, specificity and solubility characteristics comparable to antibodies. Monosaccharides widely found in glycoproteins (Man, GlcNAc, GalNAc and Neu5Ac) was successfully anchored onto glass beads and, subsequently, NanoMIPs were produced using cautiously chosen monomer mixture with initiator. Performance of nanoMIPs was then evaluated by dot-blot technique. Two of the synthesised nano-MIPs exhibited high selectivity for glycoprotein over non-glycoprotein. Although the results were promising, a more detailed and systematic performance study was to be initiated in future.
