Bio-Mimetic Sensors Based on Molecularly Imprinted Membranes

Abstract

An important challenge for scientific research is the production of artificial systems able to mimic the recognition mechanisms occurring at the molecular level in living systems. A valid contribution in this direction resulted from the development of molecular imprinting. By means of this technology, selective molecular recognition sites are introduced in a polymer, thus conferring it bio-mimetic properties. The potential applications of these systems include affinity separations, medical diagnostics, drug delivery, catalysis, etc. Recently, bio-sensing systems using molecularly imprinted membranes, a special form of imprinted polymers, have received the attention of scientists in various fields. In these systems imprinted membranes are used as bio-mimetic recognition elements which are integrated with a transducer component. The direct and rapid determination of an interaction between the recognition element and the target analyte (template) was an encouraging factor for the development of such systems as alternatives to traditional bio-assay methods. Due to their high stability, sensitivity and specificity, bio-mimetic sensors-based membranes are used for environmental, food, and clinical uses. This review deals with the development of molecularly imprinted polymers and their different preparation methods. Referring to the last decades, the application of these membranes as bio-mimetic sensor devices will be also reported.

Effect of minimizing amount of template by addition of macromolecular crowding agent on preparation of molecularly imprinted monolith

“…Ease of synthesis, physical robustness, and resistance to acid and base [1,3,4] are additional attractive features of MIPs. Consequently, MIPs have been widely used in many fields, including sensors [5,6], catalysts [7,8], artificial enzyme [9,10], and solid-phase-extraction materials [2,[11][12][13]. However, these synthetic materials often suffer from the disadvantage that a substantial initial amount of the template is needed in the preparation of MIP [14], which hampers the potential applicability of MIPs for expensive or poorly soluble templates.…”

Recent developments in recognition elements for chemical sensors and biosensors

“…The stronger the interaction is between the template and the monomer, the higher will be the affinity between the target analyte and the recognition sites. Methacrylic acid was commonly used as functional monomer for the synthesis of MIPs, since it can interact with a variety of amine-containing compounds via ionic interactions [32]. Methacrylic acid can also interact via hydrogen bonds with amides, carbamates, and carboxyl groups [32].…”

“…Thus, the use of synthetic matrices, such as the MIPs recently aroused the attention of researchers as recognition elements due to their high selectivity, stability, short time of synthesis, high thermostability, and cost effectiveness, as shown in Table 1. MIPs have great potential for replacing biological antibodies, so they are also known as artificial antibodies [31,32]. MIPs constitute a class of plastics antibodies, recently reviewed for their use in nanosensors [33].…”

Plastic antibody for the electrochemical detection of bacterial surface proteins

“…Although the development of MIP materials is a technology from the 70s, protein and/or microorganism imprinting has faced many difficulties within time [17][18][19][20][21]. Few reports have been published for microorganism detection based on stamp imprinting.…”

“…The detection technique used is QCM (quartz crystal microbalance) [22,23] which is limited by externally induced mechanical vibrations and large overall footprint, and heat flow measurements [24] which could be limited by temperature control. But most of the MIP materials obtained so far are used for separation and binding [25], and the detection of protein based on imprinted materials is not so much explored yet, although it remains as a promising field [18][19][20][21]. As far as we know molecular imprinting-based bacterial surface protein detection is still now missing.…”