Designing a molecularly imprinted polymer sensor for sensitive and selective detection of the prostate cancer drug Abiraterone acetate.

UNLABELLED: 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 optimized experimental conditions, the linear dynamic range of the developed sensor was established to be 1.0 × 10⁻12 to 1.5 × 10⁻11 M. The limits of detection and quantification for the sensor were established at the picomolar level, specifically 0.295 pM and 0.986 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 was conducted to better understand the experimental results and clarify the interactions between the template and monomer.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-45913-3.