Plastic Antibodies Mimicking the ACE2 Receptor for Selective Binding of SARS‐CoV‐2 Spike

Molecular imprinting has proven to be a versatile and simple strategy to obtain selective materials also termed “plastic antibodies” for a wide variety of species, i.e., from ions to macromolecules and viruses. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the development of epitope‐imprinted polymers for selective binding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is not reported to date. An epitope from the SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein comprising 17 amino acids is used as a template during the imprinting process. The interactions between the epitope template and organosilane monomers used for the polymer synthesis are predicted via molecular docking simulations. The molecularly imprinted polymer presents a 1.8‐fold higher selectivity against the target epitope compared to non‐imprinted control polymers. Rebinding studies with pseudoviruses containing SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein demonstrate the superior selectivity of the molecularly imprinted matrices, which mimic the interactions of angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 receptors from human cells. The obtained results highlight the potential of SARS‐CoV‐2 molecularly imprinted polymers for a variety of applications including chem/biosensing and antiviral delivery.