Recent progress and challenges in the application of molecularly imprinted polymers for early-stage screening of neurodegenerative diseases-related protein biomarkers
Mina Adampourezare, Mohammad Hasanzadeh, Behzad Nikzad
Abstract
Proteomics is an essential technology in medicine and biotechnology. Protein profiling and its application in disease diagnosis have attracted a lot of attention from scientists. Highly selective detection of target proteins will be beneficial in clinical diagnosis, treatment of diseases, therapeutic monitoring, control of bioreactors, and the detection of microorganisms/toxins. In recent years, researchers have paid much attention to developing biosensors for the monitoring of proteins as biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, essential protein biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases are mentioned. This review reports the use of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIPs)-based biosensors for the recognition of protein biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. The major emphasis is based on immune-, geno-, and enzyme-based sensors. Also, the critical role of various types of MIPs and innovative/efficient methods integrated with optical and electrical biosensing systems, micro/nano-electromechanical systems, lateral flow, and microfluidic platforms were surveyed. Importantly, the advantages and the limitations of MIPs-based biosensors are investigated, critically. The advantages of using smartphones in data analysis and integration of lateral flow tests with MIPs-based biosensors in increasing the sensitivity of target proteins monitoring are discussed. Hope, the critical discussions of this review provide new perspectives for the scientists to overcome limitations of traditional methods in the early-stage diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. Also, discussion about the critical role of MIPs in the biosensing of protein biomarkers opens a new horizon for the point of care analysis of neurodegenerative disease in near future.