A Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Electrochemical Sensor with Selective and Sensitive Detection Ability towards Methotrexate in Serum Samples

A highly selective and sensitive method for detecting methotrexate (MTX) in serum samples using a molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor have been developed. The preparation of the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) employed MTX as the template, which was synthesized via sol-gel technology. These polymers were then integrated with carbon paste to create the MMIPs/CPE (MMPE) sensor. Under optimized conditions, the MMPE sensor exhibited outstanding selectivity and sensitivity for MTX detection, with two linear ranges of 0.01-0.5 and 0.5-20.0 mu M, and a detection limit of just 1.63 nM. Furthermore, the sensor's practical application in serum sample analysis demonstrated its efficacy, with recovery rates between 81.0% and 125.0%. This innovation holds promise for clinical diagnosis and therapeutic applications, facilitating accurate and specific MTX detection in serum samples. Magntic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) for selective adsorption of MTX was prepared.The prepared MMIPs was served as recognition elements in the preparation of selective electrochemical senseor for MTX.This developed sensor showed excellent interference resistance, reproducibility, stability, a wide linear range (0.01-20.0 mu M) and a low LOD (1.63 nM).This method was successfully applied to MTX detection in clinical serum samples with satisfactory detection recovery and RSD and excellent accuracy, which provides a new support for the selective and sensitive detection of MTX concentrations.