Electrochemically Synthesized MIP Sensors: Applications in Healthcare Diagnostics

Abstract

Early-stage detection and diagnosis of diseases is essential to the prompt commencement of treatment regimens, curbing the spread of the disease, and improving human health. Thus, the accurate detection of disease biomarkers through the development of robust, sensitive, and selective diagnostic tools has remained cutting-edge scientific research for decades. Due to their merits of being selective, stable, simple, and having a low preparation cost, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are increasingly becoming artificial substitutes for natural receptors in the design of state-of-the-art sensing devices. While there are different MIP preparation approaches, electrochemical synthesis presents a unique and outstanding method for chemical sensing applications, allowing the direct formation of the polymer on the transducer as well as simplicity in tuning the film properties, thus accelerating the trend in the design of commercial MIP-based sensors. This review evaluates recent achievements in the applications of electrosynthesized MIP sensors for clinical analysis of disease biomarkers, identifying major trends and highlighting interesting perspectives on the realization of commercial MIP-endowed testing devices for rapid determination of prevailing diseases.

Keywords

• biomarker
• disease diagnosis
• molecularly imprinted polymers
• electropolymerization
• chemosensor
• point-of-care testing