© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

3.5.7.6 Receptor Durability

Receptor durability is difficult to estimate ab initio. Molecularly imprinted polymer sites can be stored at least several years without loss of performance, but these receptors have only been tested to >100 cycles of use without any detectable loss of memory.⁴²² The lifetime in vivo for metabolic enzymes often exceeds ~10⁵ sec (~1 day),¹⁷² and taste cell receptors survive ~10⁶ sec (~2 weeks),⁴²³ which suggests operational lifetimes for natural receptors on the order of 10⁷-10¹² cycles despite the relative fragility of protein structures. Diamondoid structures should be even more durable because of their superior physical strength, affirmative forcible ejection of bound ligands each cycle, and high resistance to chemical degradation thus reducing susceptibility to poisoning.

Last updated on 7 February 2003