An innovative approach to the design of plastic antibodies: molecular imprinting via a non polari transition state analogue

An acrylic resin imprinted with a transition state analogue which possesses a dominant non-polar structure was synthesized. As a model for this study the Diels–Alder reaction was chosen since, it is well-known and possesses a stable and synthetically achievable transition state analogue. It is shown that the plastic antibody synthesized in this study catalyzes the Diels–Alder reaction with an efficiency comparable to that of a recently developed monoclonal catalytic antibody. In fact the Lineweaver–Burk Vmax observed for the two catalysts appears to be of the same order of magnitude. We argue that plastic antibodies can be successfully used to catalyze reactions with a transition state of low polarity. Moreover, they appear to represent a more flexible catalyst when varied reaction conditions and solvent environments are needed.