Recent Trends in the Development of Carbon-Based Electrodes Modified with Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Antibiotic Electroanalysis

Abstract

Antibiotics are antibacterial agents applied in human and veterinary medicine. They are also employed to stimulate the growth of food-producing animals. Despite their benefits, the uncontrolled use of antibiotics results in serious problems, and therefore their concentration levels in different foods as well as in environmental samples were regulated. As a consequence, there is an increasing demand for the development of sensitive and selective analytical tools for antibiotic reliable and rapid detection. These requirements are accomplished by the combination of simple, cost-effective and affordable electroanalytical methods with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with high recognition specificity, based on their “lock and key” working principle, used to modify the electrode surface, which is the “heart” of any electrochemical device. This review presents a comprehensive overview of MIP-modified carbon-based electrodes developed in recent years for antibiotic detection. The MIP preparation and electrode modification procedures, along with the performance characteristics of sensors and analytical methods, as well as the applications for the antibiotics’ quantification from different matrices (pharmaceutical, biological, food and environmental samples), are discussed. The information provided by this review can inspire researchers to go deeper into the field of MIP-modified sensors and to develop efficient means for reliable antibiotic determination.

State of the Art on Developments of (Bio)Sensors and Analytical Methods for Rifamycin Antibiotics Determination

“…Au could not be used as a substrate because RIF and Pb oxidation signals obtained by SWV were overlapped, so Pb/GCE was selected for further studies [ 106 ]. MIPs are often selected as electrode surface modifiers due to their ease of preparation, high stability and their unique tailored molecular recognition properties, which provide the modified sensor with high sensitivity and improved selectivity [ 1 , 123 ]. MWCNTs are widely used as electrode coating material, characterized by low cost, good conductivity, large surface area, extended potential window, low reactivity and mechanical strength [ 65 , 67 , 110 ].…”

“…have been determined based on their chemical structure or action mechanisms. They have been produced and have brought improvement to the clinical field [ 1 ] due to their employment in the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases in humans, animals and even plants [ 2 ]. However, the increased use of antibiotics, sometimes uncontrolled, has resulted in the malfunction of organs, damage of nervous, renal or blood systems and in the enhanced development of antibiotic resistance.…”

“…Considering all of these features, it is obvious that the continuous development of cheap, fast and reliable sensors and methods that allow for the detection and quantification of antibiotics from different matrices is necessary. This fact is emphasized by the already existing reviews regarding antibiotics analysis using electrochemical sensors [ 6 ], with some of them being focused on a given class of antibiotics like amphenicols [ 7 ] or aminoglycosides [ 8 , 9 ], or on various types of modifiers like graphene [ 5 , 10 ], MIPs [ 1 ], nanomaterials [ 11 , 12 ], metal organic frameworks [ 2 ] or fluorescent sensors based on luminescent metal-organic frameworks [ 13 ]. Two recent reviews focused on biosensors relying on various biorecognition elements and nanomaterials applied to antibiotic detection in food matrices [ 4 , 14 ].…”

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Electrochemical Sensing in Protein Detection

“…It prevents random exposure or aggregation of the MIPs, thus maintaining their structural integrity and, consequently, their recognition capabilities. The oriented and stable MIPs on the electrode surface are poised to exhibit a high affinity and specificity toward the target proteins, enhancing the overall binding efficiency and sensitivity of the biosensing platform [66,67].…”

Potentiometric MIP-Modified Screen-Printed Cell for Phenoxy Herbicides Detection

“…Potentiometric and, more in general, all electrochemical techniques have several advantages compared to the classic ones: the instrumentation is less expensive, the time of analysis is low, the apparatus may be portable, the sensors can be used for in situ measurements, and the surface of the electrodes can be modified in order to obtain more specific and sensitive detections. In particular, the electrodic surface can be activated with different kinds of modifiers such as multi-Walled carbon nano tubes (MWCNTs) [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ], metal nano particles (NPs) [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], graphene [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ], metal organics frameworks (MOFs) [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ] in order to enhance the sensitivity, aptamers, antibodies [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ], enzymes [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ], or molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ] to improve the selectivity.…”