Smart electroactive molecularly imprinted polymers (e-MIPs) for precision diagnostics and point-of-care technologies: Design, mechanisms, and clinical translation.

Smart electroactive molecularly imprinted polymers (e-MIPs) represent a new generation of synthetic materials that combine molecular recognition with electrochemical signal transduction. By integrating molecular imprinting with conductive or redox-active polymers, e-MIPs offer stable, sensitive, and potentially low-cost alternatives to natural biological recognition elements such as antibodies and enzymes. Their stability, reusability, and compatibility with miniaturization make them attractive for bioanalytical applications. This review critically evaluates recent advances in the design, synthesis, and operating mechanisms of smart e-MIPs. The roles of functional monomers, imprinting strategies, electropolymerization, nanostructuring, and conductive nanomaterials are examined in relation to analytical performance and electron-transfer behavior. Particular emphasis is placed on their integration into sensing devices for biological samples, infectious-disease diagnostics, disease-biomarker detection, wearable systems, and point-of-care technologies. Representative case studies illustrate the potential of e-MIPs for rapid, label-free, and cost-effective analysis of real samples. Key challenges, including binding-site heterogeneity, nonspecific adsorption, reproducibility, scalability, and clinical validation, are also critically discussed.