NC3Rs: National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research
Fellowship

Molecularly Imprinted Nanoparticles (MIP NPs) as non-animal antibodies substitutes for detection of viruses

Portrait of Dr Alessandro Poma

At a glance

Completed
Award date
September 2014 - September 2017
Grant amount
£195,000
Principal investigator
Dr Alessandro Poma
Institute
University College London

R

  • Replacement
Read the abstract
View the grant profile on GtR

Contents

Application abstract

This Fellowship proposal aims to determine if artificial antibodies - molecularly imprinted nanoparticles (MIP NPs) - can be developed as new diagnostic/therapeutic entities in veterinary medicine to directly replace bioassays for a very important infectious disease, avian influenza, which possesses an immense potential for harm to poultry, and also a dangerously high chance to spread from poultry and pigs to humans. To date, the molecular imprinting of polymers represents the most generic, versatile, scalable and cost-effective approach to the creation of synthetic molecular receptors. Recent developments in the automated synthesis of MIP NPs using an immobilised template approach pioneered in the group of Prof. Piletsky meant that for the first time a reliable supply of "soluble" synthetic nanoparticles with pre-determined molecular recognition and/or catalytic properties with sub-nanomolar affinities, defined size and surface chemistry can be made available for testing as potential bioactives. These bioactives may have the potential to detect viruses that are widely circulating in farm animals and indeed humans. Early and accurate identification of the infectious agent will expedite appropriate control and even treatment measures. Therefore, the research into the development of MIP NPs with high affinity coupled with diagnostic technology could be a significant contribution to the scientific advancement and cost effective diagnosis at global scale.
 

Publications

  1. Piletsky S et al. (2020). Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Cell Recognition. Trends in Biotechnology 38(4):368-387. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2019.10.002
  2. Gouveia VM et al. (2019). Macrophage Targeting pH Responsive Polymersomes for Glucocorticoid Therapy. Pharmaceutics 11(11):614. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics11110614
  3. Rodríguez-Arco L et al. (2019). Molecular bionics - engineering biomaterials at the molecular level using biological principles. Biomaterials 192:26-50). doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.10.044
  4. Canfarotta F et al. (2018). Specific Drug Delivery to Cancer Cells with Double-Imprinted Nanoparticles against Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor. Nano Letters 18(8):4641-4646. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03206
  5. Ellis E et al. (2017). Biocompatible pH-responsive nanoparticles with a core-anchored multilayer shell of triblock copolymers for enhanced cancer therapy. Journal of Materials Chemistry B 23 doi: 10.1039/C7TB00654C
  6. Brahmbhatt H et al. (2016). Improvement of DNA recognition through molecular imprinting: hybrid oligomer imprinted polymeric nanoparticles (oligoMIP NPs). Biomater Sci 4(2):281-7. doi: 10.1039/c5bm00341e
  7. Canfarotta F et al. (2016). Solid-phase synthesis of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles. Nature Protocols 11(3):443-55. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2016.030
  8. Poma A et al. (2015). Generation of novel hybrid aptamer-molecularly imprinted polymeric nanoparticles. Adv Mater 27(4):750-8. doi: 10.1002/adma.201404235 
  9. Turner NW et al. (2015). Analytical methods for determination of mycotoxins: An update (2009-2014). Analytica Chimica Acta 901:12-33. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2015.10.013