| Abstract
| - The immobilization of membrane-associated proteinsremains a challenging task. Herein, we report on theentrapment of two classes of membrane-bound receptorsinto sol−gel derived silica. Both nicotinic acetylcholinereceptor (nAChR), a ligand-gated ion channel, and dopamine D2Short receptor (D2R), a G-protein coupled receptor,were entrapped into a series of sol−gel derived nanocomposite materials. In cases where the silica had a bimodalpore size distribution wherein both mesopores andmacropores were present, the two receptors showed 40−80% of solution activity over periods of at least 1 month.Furthermore, the dissociation constants of entrappednAChR and D2R for binding to known agonists andantagonists were very close to the values obtained for freereceptors in solution. These results indicate that membrane-bound receptors entrapped into bimodal meso/macroporous silica should provide a useful platform forthe development of bioanalytical devices such as bioaffinity columns or microarrays, which could aid in diagnosis and high-throughput drug screening.
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