Imprinting of Molecular Recognition Sites on Nanostructures and Its Applications in Chemosensors

Abstract

Biological receptors including enzymes, antibodies and active proteins have been widely used as the detection platform in a variety of chemo/biosensors and bioassays. However, the use of artificial host materials in chemical/biological detections has become increasingly attractive, because the synthetic recognition systems such as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) usually have lower costs, higher physical/chemical stability, easier preparation and better engineering possibility than biological receptors. Molecular imprinting is one of the most efficient strategies to offer a synthetic route to artificial recognition systems by a template polymerization technique, and has attracted considerable efforts due to its importance in separation, chemo/biosensors, catalysis and biomedicine. Despite the fact that MIPs have molecular recognition ability similar to that of biological receptors, traditional bulky MIP materials usually exhibit a low binding capacity and slow binding kinetics to the target species. Moreover, the MIP materials lack the signal-output response to analyte binding events when used as recognition elements in chemo/biosensors or bioassays. Recently, various explorations have demonstrated that molecular imprinting nanotechniques may provide a potential solution to these difficulties. Many successful examples of the development of MIP-based sensors have also been reported during the past several decades. This review will begin with a brief introduction to the principle of molecular imprinting nanotechnology, and then mainly summarize various synthesis methodologies and recognition properties of MIP nanomaterials and their applications in MIP-based chemosensors. Finally, the future perspectives and efforts in MIP nanomaterials and MIP-based sensors are given.

The rational development of molecularly imprinted polymer-based sensors for protein detection

“…Nanoparticles offer many advantages in MIP-based sensing including: improved signal sensitivity, increased sensor surface area (making removal of the template easier) and novel signal transduction mechanisms. 249,250 Gold nanoparticle aggregation is routinely used in lateral flow devices, which highlights that such technology can be readily adapted to inexpensive and disposable platforms for diagnostic applications.…”

Polymeric nanoparticles for optical sensing

“…If QDs are close to the imprinted recognition sites, the analyte binding quenches the photoemission of the QDs. This is due to the Förster resonance energy transfer, which can result in up to a 4-fold reduction in the photoemission of QDs for some analytes (Guan et al, 2008). Recently, composite QD-MIPNPs have been prepared for the detection of target molecules in saliva, which might be used as biomarkers in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (Lee et al, 2010b).…”

Recent advances in molecular imprinting technology: current status, challenges and highlighted applications

“…Considering that the highlighted applications of MIPs as separation media have been summarized in ref. [196][197][198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208], more emphasis is placed here on the application of MIPs in sensors, artificial antibodies and catalysts. Table 3 summarizes the relevant studies reported [209][210][211][212][213][214][215][216][217][218][219][220][221][222][223][224][225] about applications of MIPs as separation sorbents, which are divided into four broad categories: environmental, bioanalytical, food and pharmaceutical applications.…”