Designing a Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Sensor for Sensitive and Selective Detection of the Prostate Cancer Drug Abiraterone Acetate

This work has successfully implemented an electrochemical sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymers for the accurate and selective detection of abiraterone acetate (AA). AA serving as the template and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid acting as the functional monomer, in conjunction with other components essential for MIP formation, were used to fabricate the sensor through a photopolymerization technique, utilizing a glassy carbon electrode. Comprehensive characterizations of surface structure and electrochemical properties were conducted using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy methods. Under ideal testing circumstances, the developed sensor's linearity range was determined to be between 1.0 × 10 ^− 12 and 1.5 × 10 ^− 11 M. The limits of detection and quantification for the sensor were established at the picomolar level, specifically 0.29 pM and 0.98 pM, respectively, demonstrating a linear response within the same concentration range when tested with commercial human serum samples. In both tablet and spiked serum samples, the relative standard deviations remained under 2.28%, and the AA recoveries varied between 97.84 and 103.83%. Additionally, a series of Density Functional Theory calculations were conducted to better understand the experimental results and clarify the interactions between the template and monomer.