Molecular imprinting-based pseudo-ELISA: recent advances

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a versatile analytical method widely used in medical, biological, chemical and many other fields. Antibodies play an important role in recognizing target analytes within complex real-sample matrices. However, as biomacromolecules, antibodies suffer from inherent limitations, including stringent storage conditions, high production costs, loss of biological activity and potential ethical concerns. These drawbacks restrict their application in extreme environments, low-cost screening tests, and small-molecule analysis. Recent advances in materials science offer an alternative. Molecular imprinting enables the template-induced formation of artificial recognition sites within polymeric matrices. These sites mimic the template in terms of size, shape, and the spatial arrangement of functional groups. Therefore, the resulting molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) can function similarly to antibodies to form a pseudo-ELISA (pELISA) platform, offering potentially higher stability, greater synthetic tunability and lower cost. In this review, we summarize molecular imprinting-based pELISA platforms reported over the past five years, along with current challenges, emerging trends and future perspectives. We conclude that pELISA based on molecular imprinting will not replace conventional ELISA in the near future. Rather, it represents a promising complement to antibodies in niche applications such as low-cost point-of-care testing.