Preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers for the recognition of proteins via the generation of peptide-fragment binding sites by semi-covalent imprinting and enzymatic digestion.

Molecularly imprinted polymers bearing peptide fragment-based binding sites within the protein-imprinted cavities were prepared by copolymerization of the acrylated protein with 6-monoacryloyl-trehalose and 6,6'-diacryloyl-trehalose as a hydrophilic comonomer and a crosslinker respectively, followed by enzymatic decomposition of the grafted protein into the polymer matrix with pepsin, resulting in the creation of peptide fragment-based protein-binding sites.