SARS‐CoV‐2 Epitope‐Imprinted Polymer Nanofibers Prepared by Reactive Electrospinning as Synthetic Antibodies

ABSTRACT “Synthetic antibodies” prepared using polymers imprinted with biological molecules can provide an attractive alternative compared to natural antibodies when integrated in sensors, since they can be more resistant to variations in pH, temperature, and organic solvents. The objective of this work was to produce “synthetic antibodies” based on the SARS‐CoV‐2 epitope as biofunctionalized nanofibers to test the hypothesis that the high surface area of nanofibers imprinted with SARS‐CoV‐2 epitope would improve the capability of detection of the synthetic antibody. To this end, a SARS‐CoV‐2 epitope peptide (J5) was designed, simulated through bioinformatics tools (in silico), and synthesized as a model molecule (MM) for imprinting. Epitope‐imprinted polymers (EIPs) based on J5 and non‐imprinted polymers (NIPs) were prepared with polymeric networks in the form of bulk samples and electrospun fibers using a reactive electrospinning setup. Bovine serum albumin was also used as a MM for the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). The rebinding capacity ( Q ) for bovine serum albumin (BSA)‐imprinted nanofibers (49 074 ± 2374 µg/g) was substantially higher than that of bulk BSA‐imprinted polymers (9241 ± 5112 µg/g). Similarly, J5‐imprinted nanofibers exhibited a higher Q value (11 923 ± 1762 µg/g) compared to J5‐imprinted bulk samples (6065 ± 755 µg/g).