Development of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanoparticles with High Affinity and Its Application to Electrochemical Biosensors

Abstract

In this study, redox-labeled molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nano-MIPs) were synthesized using a solid-phase approach, templated with biomarkers for diabetes such as human serum albumin (HSA). The purpose of this research was to develop enzyme-/antibody-free electrochemical biosensors with the nano-MIP-coated Au electrodes. The synthesized HSA–nano-MIP (HNM) was analyzed for its chemical composition, size, affinity, and electrochemical property, and was tethered on gold via a coupling chemistry. The results of cyclic voltammetry analysis revealed that electron transfer occurred on the HNM-immobilized Au electrode through physical displacement of the redox centers within HNM, which hopped from one redox center to an adjacent redox center, a process known as bounded diffusion. In this paper, we present a promising approach to developing sensitive and selective electrochemical biosensors for diabetes detection.