Revolutionizing medicine: Molecularly imprinted polymers as precision tools in cancer diagnosis and antibiotic detection.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are pivotal in medicine, mimicking biological receptors with enhanced specificity and affinity. Comprising templates, functional monomers, and cross-linkers, MIPs form stable three-dimensional polymer networks. Synthetic templates like glycan and aptamers improve efficiency, guiding the molecular imprinting process.

Molecular imprinting of miR-559 on a peptide-immobilized poly L-DOPA/silica core-shell and in vitro investigating its effects on HER2-positive breast cancer cells.

In a significant percentage of breast cancers, increased expression of the HER2 receptor is seen and is associated with the spread and worsening of the disease. This research aims to investigate the effect of miR-559 (which targets HER2 mRNA) on SKBR3 breast cancer cells and the possibility of their effective delivery with polymeric nanoparticles and tumor-targeting peptides. L-DOPA monomers were polymerized on the surface of silica nanoparticles in the presence of miR-559 (as a molecular template for molecular imprinting) then an anti-HER2 peptide coupled to the surface of these polymeric nanocomposites (miR-NC-NL2), and the effects of this construct against a HER2-positive breast cancer cells (SKBR3 cells) investigated in vitro conditions.