Employment of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers to High-Throughput Screen nNOS-PSD-95 Interruptions: Structure and Dynamics Investigations on Monomer-Template Complexation.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are employed to screen nNOS-PSD-95 (neuronal nitric oxide synthase post-synaptic density protein-95) interruptions. 5-(3,5-Dichloro-2-hydroxybenzylamino)-2-hydroxybenzoic acid (ZL006; a potential drug candidate for the treatment of stroke, depression, and pain) is employed as a template. Four kinds of functional monomers (2-VP: 2-vinylpyridine; 4-VP: 4-vinylpyridine; MMA: methyl methacrylate; and MAAM: methacrylamide) are designed, and their complexation with ZL006 in various solvents (methanol, acetonitrile, toluene, chloroform) is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations and quantum mechanics calculations. Both 4-VP and MAAM have stronger interactions with ZL006 than those of 2-VP and MMA. The appropriate ratio of monomer to template is 3:1. Intermolecular hydrogen bonds play a dominant role in monomer-template complexation. Ideal solvents are toluene and chloroform, and the solvation effect on monomer-template complexation is revealed. Both molecular modeling and adsorption experiments demonstrate that as-synthesized ZL006-MIP with 4-VP as a monomer has better selectivity than that employing MAAM to screen for nNOS-PSD-95 interruptions.