Molecularly Imprinted Polymers as State-of-the-Art Drug Carriers in Hydrogel Transdermal Drug Delivery Applications

Abstract

Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) are polymeric networks capable of recognizing determined analytes. Among other methods, non-covalent imprinting has become the most popular synthesis strategy for Molecular Imprinting Technology (MIT). While MIPs are widely used in various scientific fields, one of their most challenging applications lies within pharmaceutical chemistry, namely in therapeutics or various medical therapies. Many studies focus on using hydrogel MIPs in transdermal drug delivery, as the most valuable feature of hydrogels in their application in drug delivery systems that allow controlled diffusion and amplification of the microscopic events. Hydrogels have many advantages over other imprinting materials, such as milder synthesis conditions at lower temperatures or the increase in the availability of biological templates like DNA, protein, and nucleic acid. Moreover, one of the most desirable controlled drug delivery applications is the development of stimuli-responsive hydrogels that can modulate the release in response to changes in pH, temperature, ionic strength, or others. The most important feature of these systems is that they can be designed to operate within a particular human body area due to the possibility of adapting to well-known environmental conditions. Therefore, molecularly imprinted hydrogels play an important role in the development of modern drug delivery systems.

New Miniaturized Disposable Screen-Printed Microchip Integrated with Molecularly Imprinted Polymer for Metronidazole Benzoate Drug Detection

“…As can be seen, the MIP-based MB microchip showed reasonably high selectivity toward MB compared to the other tested species. A similar high selectivity was reported for the MIP-based ion selective electrodes and potentiometric sensors which is attributed to the MIP possessing a unique property of recognizing specific template molecules [24]. The data obtained from the potentiometric response parameters of the elaborated MIP-based MB screen-printed microchip are summarized in Table 1.…”

“…Moreover, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was recently applied as a sensitive element in the fabrication of potentiometric electrodes [13,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. MIP-sensitive elements represent novel materials and have appeared to be very promising candidates as highly selective membranes in potentiometric applications where analyte selectivity is crucial.…”

Current advances in molecularly imprinted polymers and their release mechanisms in drug delivery systems

“…In both studies, an in vitro cytotoxicity study was performed against several cancer cell lines, which ultimately displayed a biocompatibility property. 26,27 Generally, the role of the crosslinker is to create a three-dimensional polymeric network that possesses a balanced combination of stiffness and flexibility. This network structure is crucial for enabling the appropriate infiltration of solvents into the matrix while also serving as a pore-forming agent.…”

Application of Molecular Imprinting for Creation of Highly Selective Sorbents for Extraction and Separation of Rare-Earth Elements

“…The essence of the method for obtaining molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) is the formation of a stable prepolymerization complex between a template molecule and a functional monomer (in other words, preorganization occurs) by mixing them in a suitable solvent [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Next, polymerization is carried out in the presence of a cross-linking agent, during which the pre-polymerization complex is rigidly fixed in the polymer network.…”