Decreased blood level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is one of the essential criteria in diagnosing metabolic syndrome associated with the development of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Herein, we report the synthesis of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) that selectively binds HDL, namely, HDL-MIP, and thus serves as an artificial, biomimetic sensor layer. The optimized polymer contains methacrylic acid and N-vinylpyrrolidone in the ratio of 2:3, cross-linked with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. On 10 MHz dual electrode quartz crystal microbalances (QCM), such HDL-MIP revealed dynamic detection range toward HDL standards in the clinically relevant ranges of 2-250 mg/dL HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) in 10 mM phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH = 7.4) without significant interference: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) yields 5% of the HDL signal, and both very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and human serum albumin (HSA) yield 0%. The sensor reveals recovery rates between 94 and 104% at 95% confidence interval with precision of 2.3-7.7% and shows appreciable correlation (R 2 = 0.97) with enzymatic colorimetric assay, the standard in clinical tests. In contrast to the latter, it achieves rapid results (10 min) during one-step analysis without the need for sample preparation. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.
Keywords: High-density lipoprotein; Lipoprotein sensor; Molecularly imprinted polymer; Quartz crystal microbalance.