Synthesis and characterization of fluoroquinolone-imprinted polymeric nanoparticles

Abstract Molecularly imprinted polymeric nanoparticles have been prepared by means of the precipitation polymerization method using a fluoroquinolone, levofloxacin, as a template, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer and 2-ethyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-l,3-diol as a crosslinker. The synthesized polymers have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy that revealed that the produced systems are sub-micrometer-sized particles with a diameter ranging from 50 to 100 nm. The study of the interactions of these polymers with selected fluoroquinolones (levofloxacin, ofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin), acetaminophen, diclofenac, aspirin, and sulfamethoxazole has been carried out in acetonitrile and water. It is demonstrated that the amounts of levofloxacin and its structural analogues (ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin) bound to the molecularly imprinted polymeric nanoparticles are higher than those bound to the non-imprinted nanoparticles both in acetonitrile and in water; the binding of acetaminophen, diclofenac, aspirin and sulfamethoxazole onto both the imprinted and non-imprinted nanoparticles are shown to be significantly lower. In water, it has been shown that even if decreased, the imprinted nanoparticles retain a relevant selectivity for the studied fluoroquinolones, and the binding of other studied pharmaceuticals are not enhanced significantly ( e.g. acetaminophen) or even suppressed ( e.g. diclofenac sodium, aspirin and sulfamethoxazole) by the molecular imprinting.