Tracking and Treating: Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Nanoprobes Application in Theranostics

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are biomimetic materials that garnered great interest in many fields including biomedicine. MIPs can mimic physiologic recognition units such as antibodies and receptors giving a resourceful platform for biomedical applications. They possess attractive advantages due to their high specificity and selectivity, stability under critical conditions, long shelf life, and their economic efficiency compared to routinely used molecules such as antibodies, proteins, and aptamers. MIPs can be prepared for targets lacking any available recognizing molecules. MIPs have been used for many applications such as biosensors, nanocarriers, and drug delivery systems, diagnostic and imaging. Of interest to the current chapter, the use of MIPs as nanoprobes for targeting, diagnosis, and treatments are discussed. An overview of the synthesis methods is summarized while a comprehensive highlight of MIP-based probing applications is presented. MIPs utilization is still in its infancy, and given the positive results seen through the current research present in the field, we believe that many interesting discoveries will be uncovered in the next future. © 2021 Elsevier Inc