The Selective Detection of Cyantraniliprole Insecticides Using Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Coupled with an Acetylcholinesterase Inhibition-Based Biosensor

Cyantraniliprole is one of the anthranilic diamide insecticides widely used in the agriculture sector. Due to its low toxicity and relatively fast degradation, there is need for a sensitive determination method for its residues. Nowadays, there is growing interest in the development of enzyme-based biosensors. The major drawback is the non-specific binding of many insecticides to the enzyme. This work employs Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to increase enzyme specificity and eliminate the organic solvent effect on the enzyme activity. The synthesized Cyan-Molecularly imprinted polymers (Cyan-MIP) possesses high affinity and selectivity toward cyantraniliprole. Acetylcholinesterase assay characteristics including enzyme concentration, substrate concentration, DTNB concentration, and acetonitrile concentration were optimized. Under optimal experimental conditions, the developed MIP-Acetylcholinesterase (MIP-AchE) inhibition-based sensor provides better precision than the AchE inhibition-based sensor with a wide linear range (15–50 ppm), limit of detection (LOD) 4.1 ppm, and limit of quantitation (LOQ) 12.6 ppm. The sensor was successfully applied for cyantraniliprole determination in spiked melon, giving satisfactory recoveries.