Potentiometric chemosensor for neopterin, a cancer biomarker, using an electrochemically synthesized molecularly imprinted polymer as the recognition unit

With an established procedure of molecular imprinting, a synthetic polymer receptor for the neopterin cancer biomarker was devised and used as a recognition unit of a potentiometric chemosensor. For that, bis-bithiophene derivatized with cytosine and bithiophene derivatized with boronic acid were used as functional monomers. The open-circuit potential (OCP) based transduction under flow-injection analysis conditions (FIA) determined neopterin in the concentration range of 0.15-2.5 mM with the 22 mu M limit of detection (LOD) and 7.01(+/- 0.15) mV mM(-1) sensitivity indicating its potential suitability in clinical analysis applications. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film showed an appreciable apparent imprinting factor of similar to 6. The chemosensor successfully discriminated the interferences including the 6-biopterin and pterin structural analogs of neopterin as well as glucose and creatinine. Moreover, it determined neopterin in synthetic serum samples. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.