The Development and Optimization of Biogenic Molecularly Imprinted Sensors for the Sensitive and Selective Electroanalytical Quantitation of Met-Enkephalin
Abstract
Elucidating the roles of endogenous peptides such as Met-enkephalin in a spatiotemporal manner necessitates sensitive and selective measurement tools capable of measuring peptide dynamics in situ. In this work, we develop novel molecularly imprinted polymers on carbon fiber microelectrodes using the amino acid methionine as a functional monomer. We have coined these new materials biogenic molecularly imprinted polymers (bio-MIPs). Electroanalytical sensors are made by integrating these bio-MIPs with carbon fiber microelectrodes through electropolymerization. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, we examined how tuning different parameters in cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry during polymerization affected the surface and performance of imprinted sensors. These sensors demonstrated comparable selectivity to prior o-phenylenediamine/aniline sensors but with six-fold greater redox response to the same concentration of Met-enkephalin. The bio-MIPs sensors were also created with 1000-fold less monomer and template peptide concentrations than previous ones using non-biogenic monomers such as o-phenylenediamine and aniline. Electrochemical impedance data demonstrate that the best performing bio-MIPs sensors had comparable conductivity as the bare electrode and an increase in electroactive area compared to the bare carbon fiber microelectrodes, with thinner polymeric coating resulting in better redox signal overall. This work lays the groundwork for new molecular recognition elements using electroactive amino acids as functional monomers for imprinting.
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BibTeX
@misc{oconnor2026development,
title = {{The Development and Optimization of Biogenic Molecularly Imprinted Sensors for the Sensitive and Selective Electroanalytical Quantitation of Met-Enkephalin}},
author = {Abigail M. O’Connor and Luke M. Williams and Jillian J. Corbit and Yangguang Ou},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15009823/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009823/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Development and Optimization of Biogenic Molecularly Imprinted Sensors for the Sensitive and Selective Electroanalytical Quantitation of Met-Enkephalin
AU - Abigail M. O’Connor
AU - Luke M. Williams
AU - Jillian J. Corbit
AU - Yangguang Ou
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/04
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15009823/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009823/v1
AB - Elucidating the roles of endogenous peptides such as Met-enkephalin in a spatiotemporal manner necessitates sensitive and selective measurement tools capable of measuring peptide dynamics in situ. In this work, we develop novel molecularly imprinted polymers on carbon fiber microelectrodes using the amino acid methionine as a functional monomer. We have coined these new materials biogenic molecularly imprinted polymers (bio-MIPs). Electroanalytical sensors are made by integrating these bio-MIPs with carbon fiber microelectrodes through electropolymerization. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, we examined how tuning different parameters in cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry during polymerization affected the surface and performance of imprinted sensors. These sensors demonstrated comparable selectivity to prior o-phenylenediamine/aniline sensors but with six-fold greater redox response to the same concentration of Met-enkephalin. The bio-MIPs sensors were also created with 1000-fold less monomer and template peptide concentrations than previous ones using non-biogenic monomers such as o-phenylenediamine and aniline. Electrochemical impedance data demonstrate that the best performing bio-MIPs sensors had comparable conductivity as the bare electrode and an increase in electroactive area compared to the bare carbon fiber microelectrodes, with thinner polymeric coating resulting in better redox signal overall. This work lays the groundwork for new molecular recognition elements using electroactive amino acids as functional monomers for imprinting.
ER -