Development and characterisation of molecularly imprinted polymers based on methacrylic acid for selective recognition of drugs

Specific molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the drug reserpine (RES) using methacrylic acid (MAA) as the functional monomer were developed and characterised for the first time in this study. Evaluation of the various polymers by binding assays indicated that the optimum ratio of functional monomer to template was 4:1. Furthermore, the imprinting effect of the MIPs was assessed by the chromatographic method, which demonstrated that the MIPs had better chromatographic behavior and selectivity than those of the corresponding NIPs. A combination of BET, NMR, UV spectroscopy, and MISPE analyses for investigation of the imprinting and recognition properties revealed that strong specific interactions between the functional monomer and RES in the prepolymerization solutions and the aqueous solutions were probably responsible for RES recognition. The preparation of RES MIPs and elucidation of imprinting and recognition mechanisms may serve as useful references for other drug MIPs.