Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Based Capacitive Chemosensor for Determination of Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines in Food Samples

Abstract

Quinoxaline heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are formed during meat and fish cooking, frying, or grilling at high temperatures. They are usually generated at very low concentrations (~ng per g of a food sample). However, HAAs are classified as potent hazardous carcinogens because they may effectively damage DNA because of intercalation or strand break. Hence, chronic exposure to HAAs, even in low doses, can lead to lung, stomach, and breast cancer. HPLC is commonly applied for HAA toxins’ determination in food matrices. However, this technique is expensive, tedious, and time-consuming. Therefore, fast, simple, inexpensive, and reliable HAA determination procedures are in demand. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are excellent examples of bio-mimicking recognition materials. Therefore, they have been used in numerous applications in selective chemosensing. Within the present research, we synthesized a nucleobase-functionalized molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) to be used as a recognition unit for an electrochemical sensor to selectively determine 2-amino-3,7,8-trimethyl-3H-imidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (7,8-DiMeIQx) HAA. MIP-(7,8-DiMeIQx) film-coated electrodes were highly sensitive and selective to 7, 8-DiMeIQx. The linear dynamic concentration range of the devised capacitive chemosensor extended from 47 to 400 µM of 7, 8-DiMeIQx, and the imprinting factor was high (IF = 8.5). The MIP-(7,8-DiMeIQx) film-coated electrodes were successfully applied for 7, 8-DiMeIQx determination in meat samples.