Therapeutic drug monitoring of anticancer drugs is crucial to advancing personalized medicine. This study developed a wearable fluorescence hydrogel-imprinted sensor integrated with automated smartphone-based image processing of fluorescence image patterns for rapid, noninvasive, and visual differentiation and quantification of anticancer drugs and their metabolites in sweat. Combining the covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with CdTe quantum dots (CdTe QDs) through electrostatic interaction, the fluorescence molecularly imprinted polymer (COF/CdTe@MIP) was prepared by imprinting with capecitabine (CAP) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The COF/CdTe@MIP uniformly distributed on the hydrogel framework by in situ free radical polymerization was pressed into the polydimethylsiloxane-silicon dioxide (PDMS-SiO2) patch to construct a wearable fluorescence hydrogel-imprinted sensor. The PDMS-SiO2 patch can effectively collect sweat from the hydrogel to facilitate quantitative detection. Under smartphone detection mode, the COF/CdTe@MIP hydrogel sensor can visually recognize and simultaneously detect CAP and 5-FU within the linear concentration ranges of 0.02-3.6 and 0.01-1.6 μM, respectively. With the assistance of automated smartphone-based image processing, the wearable fluorescence hydrogel-imprinted sensor achieves rapid identification of CAP and 5-FU within 7 min. This wearable fluorescence hydrogel-imprinted sensor provides a feasible method for rapid visual real-time monitoring of anticancer drugs and their metabolites in sweat.
Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.