Selective virus capture via hexon imprinting.

An imprinting technique has been developed to generate synthetic polymer beads suitable for selectively binding a supramolecular target. The viral hexon protein, which is the most abundant and accessible surface protein component of the human Adenovirus type 5 (hAdV5) icosahedral capsid, was applied as the template molecule to generate functional polymer beads entailing selectivity for the entire virus. Individual and competitive rebinding studies using two different viruses (i.e. hAdV5 and Minute Virus of Mice - MVM) revealed exquisite selectivity of the imprinted beads for the target hAdV5. Additionally, the morphology of thus imprinted beads was checked via scanning electron microscopy (SEM).