Garg Saweta, Singla Pankaj, Kaur Sarbjeet, Canfarotta Francesco, Velliou Eirini, Dawson James A, Kapur Nikil, Warren Nicholas J, Amarnath Shoba, Peeters Marloes
University of Manchester, School of Engineering, Engineering A Building, Booth East Street, Manchester, M13 9QS, United Kingdom.
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom.
Macromolecules. 2025 Feb 1;58(3):1157-1168. doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.4c01621. eCollection 2025 Feb 11.
Molecular recognition is of crucial importance in several healthcare applications, such as sensing, drug delivery, and therapeutics. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) present an interesting alternative to biological receptors (e.g., antibodies, enzymes) for this purpose since synthetic receptors overcome the limited robustness, flexibility, high-cost, and potential for inhibition that comes with natural recognition elements. However, off the shelf MIP products remain limited, which is likely due to the lack of a scalable production approach that can manufacture these materials in high yields and narrow and defined size distributions to have full control over their properties. In this Perspective, we will confer how breakthroughs in the automation of MIP design, manufacturing, and evaluation of performance will accelerate the (commercial) implementation of MIPs in healthcare technology. In addition, we will discuss how prediction of the behavior of MIPs with animal-free technologies (e.g., 3D tissue models) will be critical to assess their clinical potential.
分子识别在多种医疗保健应用中至关重要，例如传感、药物递送和治疗。分子印迹聚合物（MIPs）为此提供了一种有趣的替代生物受体（如抗体、酶）的选择，因为合成受体克服了天然识别元件所具有的有限稳健性、灵活性、高成本以及抑制可能性。然而，现成的MIP产品仍然有限，这可能是由于缺乏一种可扩展的生产方法，该方法能够以高产量制造这些材料，并具有窄且明确的尺寸分布，从而能够完全控制其性能。在本观点文章中，我们将探讨MIP设计、制造和性能评估自动化方面的突破将如何加速MIPs在医疗技术中的（商业）应用。此外，我们将讨论如何利用无动物技术（如3D组织模型）预测MIPs的行为对于评估其临床潜力至关重要。
