Dummy-template imprinted bovine serum albumin for extraction of zearalenone

The aim of this study is to develop molecularly imprinted protein specific to zearalenone (ZEN). The primary idea of our study was to replace the toxic template—ZEN—with a dummy-template—4–hydroxicoumarin—during the synthesis of imprinted proteins (IPs). The choice of the dummy-template was based on the results of comprehensive evaluation that included a combination of blind docking and molecular dynamics simulations. Furthermore, we studied the influence of protonation and purification conditions to IPs sorption capacity. 3D fluorescence spectroscopy was used to monitor the process of bovine serum albumin (BSA) imprinting. The modified purification approach allowed reducing the eluent volume and purification time by approximately 300 and 48 times, respectively. The imprinted BSA was then used to produce a bioinorganic sorbent (IPs–BIS) based on silica nanoparticles (silica NPs), that, as far as we know, was never described before. The synthesized IPs–BIS were successfully applied as ZEN sorbents in model solutions (Q\(_\text {max}\) = 1.70 ± 0.15 mg g\(^{-1}\), imprinting factor = 2.5) and artificially contaminated wheat extract (Q\(_\text {max}\) = 2.24 ± 0.02 mg g\(^{-1}\)) confirmed by HPLC–UV. We believe that our method can be used for mycotoxin monitoring in animal feeds and foodstuff.

Dummy-template imprinted bovine serum albumin for extraction of zearalenone