Progress and challenges in sensing of mycotoxins using molecularly imprinted polymers

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) 2022-07, Vol.305, p.119218-119218, Article 119218
• Main Authors: Hua, Yongbiao, Ahmadi, Younes, Sonne, Christian, Kim, Ki-Hyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Molecularly imprinted polymers; Mycotoxins; Sensing
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119218

Mycotoxin is toxic secondary metabolite formed by certain filamentous fungi. This toxic compound can enter the food chain through contamination of food (e.g., by colonization of toxigenic fungi on food). In light of the growing concerns on the health hazards posed by mycotoxins, it is desirable to develop reliable analytical tools for their detection in food products in both sensitive and efficient manner. For this purpose, the potential utility of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) has been explored due to their meritful properties (e.g., large number of tailor-made binding sites, sensitive template molecules, high recognition specificity, and structure predictability). This review addresses the recent advances in the application of MIPs toward the sensing of various mycotoxins (e.g., aflatoxins and patulin) along with their fabrication strategies. Then, performance evaluation is made for various types of MIP- and non-MIP-based sensing platforms built for the listed target mycotoxins in terms of quality assurance such as limit of detection (LOD). Further, the present challenges in the MIP-based sensing application of mycotoxins are discussed along with the future outlook in this research field. [Display omitted] •Here we review MIP-based sensing tools built for mycotoxins.•Different strategies for the fabrication of MIPs are summarized.•Various modes for constructing MIP-based sensors are introduced.•Performance of different detection options is evaluated for diverse mycotoxins.•The challenges and future of MIP-based sensing tools are discussed.