Molecular Imprinting Technology for Determination of Uric Acid

• Main Authors: Vilma Ratautaite, Urte Samukaite-Bubniene, Deivis Plausinaitis, Raimonda Boguzaite, Domas Balciunas, Almira Ramanaviciene, Grażyna Neunert, Arunas Ramanavicius
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: uric acid; molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs); molecular imprinting technology (MIT); electrochemical methods; conducting polymers; polypyrrole
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/9/5032

The review focuses on the overview of electrochemical sensors based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the determination of uric acid. The importance of robust and precise determination of uric acid is highlighted, a short description of the principles of molecular imprinting technology is presented, and advantages over the others affinity-based analytical methods are discussed. The review is mainly concerned with the electro-analytical methods like cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, amperometry, etc. Moreover, there are some scattered notes to the other electrochemistry-related analytical methods, which are capable of providing additional information and to solve some challenges that are not achievable using standard electrochemical methods. The significance of these overviewed methods is highlighted. The overview of the research that is employing MIPs imprinted with uric acid is mainly targeted to address these topics: (i) type of polymers, which are used to design uric acid imprint structures; (ii) types of working electrodes and/or other parts of signal transducing systems applied for the registration of analytical signal; (iii) the description of the uric acid extraction procedures applied for the design of final MIP-structure; (iv) advantages and disadvantages of electrochemical methods and other signal transducing methods used for the registration of the analytical signal; (vi) overview of types of interfering molecules, which were analyzed to evaluate the selectivity; (vi) comparison of analytical characteristics such as linear range, limits of detection and quantification, reusability, reproducibility, repeatability, and stability. Some insights in future development of uric acid sensors are discussed in this review.