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Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Sensor for Electrochemical Detection of Cortisol
Elly Septia Yulianti1, Siti Fauziyah Rahman1,2, Yudan Whulanza2,3
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Depok 16424, West Java, Indonesia.
Insights
Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) offer a durable, long-lasting alternative to antibodies and aptamers for detecting cortisol, a key stress biomarker. These artificial antibodies provide high sensitivity and selectivity for early stress detection.
Area of Science:
- Biomarker detection
- Biosensor technology
- Analytical chemistry
Background:
- Cortisol is a steroid hormone linked to the stress response, making it a valuable biomarker for early stress detection.
- Electrochemical immunosensors using antibodies are common for cortisol detection, but antibodies and aptamers face shelf-life limitations.
- Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are emerging as robust artificial bioreceptors for molecular detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advancements in cortisol detection methods, focusing on antibody, aptamer, and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-based sensors.
- To compare the performance, advantages, and limitations of different bioreceptors for cortisol detection.
- To highlight the potential of MIPs as a stable and sensitive alternative for cortisol sensing.
Main Methods:
- Review of scientific literature from the past five years on cortisol detection sensors.
- Analysis of amperometric sensors utilizing antibodies and aptamers.
- Investigation of recent developments in molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-based sensors for cortisol detection.
Main Results:
- Antibody and aptamer-based sensors show high selectivity and sensitivity but suffer from short shelf lives.
- Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) offer a stable alternative with high selectivity, low cross-reactivity, and excellent durability.
- MIPs demonstrate a long shelf life, convenience in fabrication, and can detect cortisol at concentrations as low as 2 ag/mL.
Conclusions:
- MIPs present a promising alternative to traditional antibodies and aptamers for cortisol detection due to their stability and sensitivity.
- The development of MIP-based sensors offers a more durable and cost-effective approach for early stress detection.
- Future research should focus on optimizing MIP performance and exploring novel applications in biosensing.
Abstract:
As a steroid hormone, cortisol has a close relationship with the stress response, and therefore, can be used as a biomarker for early detection of stress. An electrochemical immunosensor is one of the most widely used methods to detect cortisol, with antibodies as its bioreceptor. Apart from conventional laboratory-based methods, the trend for cortisol detection has seemed to be exploiting antibodies and aptamers. Both can provide satisfactory performance with high selectivity and sensitivity, but they still face issues with their short shelf life. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been widely used to detect macro- and micro-molecules by forming artificial antibodies as bioreceptors. MIPs are an alternative to natural antibodies, which despite demonstrating high selectivity and a low degree of cross-reactivity, often also show a high sensitivity to the environment, leading to their denaturation. MIPs can be prepared with convenient and relatively affordable fabrication processes. They also have high durability in ambient conditions, a long shelf life, and the ability to detect cortisol molecules at a concentration as low as 2 ag/mL. By collecting data from the past five years, this review summarizes the antibody and aptamer-based amperometric sensors as well as the latest developments exploiting MIPs rather than antibodies. Lastly, factors that can improve MIPs performance and are expected to be developed in the future are also explained.
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