(658g) Peptoid-Based Antibody Mimics for ELISA Microarray

Recent studies have shown microarrays to be indispensable for various biological applications, allowing for high-throughput processing as well as screening of biological samples such as RNA, DNA, proteins and peptides using a small sample volume. N-substituted glycine oligomers, or peptoids, are a class of compounds that are similar to peptides but display the functional group on the Nitrogen atom instead of the alpha-carbon atom. Their structure allows for them to exhibit resistance to proteases and elicit low immune response. Their tunable structure also allows for customizing sequences to fit a diversity of applications. Peptoids have shown potential to be used as a substitute for antibodies as capture molecules as well as structural scaffolding in conventional antibody microarrays. Peptoid-based antibody mimics will be designed to have both structural and functional features similar to those of antibodies, including a structurally stable constant region (scaffolding) and a variable region for protein recognition. We have synthesized peptoid variable regions that are specific for Mdm-2 and GST, as well as a peptoid-based scaffold. In our preliminary studies, PEG will be used as the scaffold molecule. PEG and the variable peptoid will be attached via click chemistry and the resulting affinity reagent will be attached to the slide using an amine group on the PEG. The activity of the peptoid-based affinity reagents will be compared to that of commercially available antibodies in an ELISA microarray assay. Specificity and lower limit of detection for the various affinity reagents will be assessed