Abstract
The possibility to prepare molecularly imprinted nanoparticles from silk fibroin was recently demonstrated starting from methacrylated silk fibroin and choosing a protein as template. Here, we attempted the imprinting of fibroin-based molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), called bioMIPs, using as a template hepcidin that is a iron-metabolism regulator-peptide, possessing a hairpin structure. A homogeneous population (PDI < 0.2) of bioMIPs with size ~50 nm was produced. The bioMIPs were selective for the template; the estimated dissociation constant for hepcidin was K(D) = 3.6 ± 0.5 10(-7) M and the average number of binding sites per bioMIP was equal to 2. The bioMIPs used in a competitive assay for hepcidin in serum showed a detection range of 1.01 10(-7)- 6.82 10(-7) M and a limit of detection of 3.29 10(-8) M.