Development of a SERS Probe for Selective Detection of Healthy Prostate and Malignant Prostate Cancer Cells Using Zn^II

Abstract

Even in 21st century, prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death for men. Since normal prostate gland contains the most Zn(II) and there are huge differences in Zn(II) content between the healthy and malignant prostate cancer cells, mobile zinc can be used as a biomarker for prostate cancer prediction. Current article reports the design of novel and highly efficient surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) probe using p-(imidazole)azo) benzenethiol attached gold nanoparticle as a Raman reporter, which has the capability to identify prostate cancer cells based on Zn(II) sensing. A facile synthesis, characterization and evaluation as Zn(II) sensing Raman probe has been reported. Reported data indicate that after binding with Zn(II), Raman reporter attached gold nanoparticle forms assembly structure, which allows selective detection of Zn(II) even at 100 ppt concentration. Theoretical full-wave finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation has been used to understand huge enhancement of SERS signal. Reported SERS probe is highly promising for in-vivo sensing of cancer, where near IR light can be easily used to avoid tissue auto-fluorescence and to enhance tissue penetration depth. Reported data show that SERS probe can distinguish metastatic cancer cells from normal prostate cells very easily with sensitivity as low as 5 cancer cells/mL. Designed SERS probe has the capability to be used as chemical toolkit for determining mobile Zn(II) concentrations in the biological sample.

Advances in surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy for cancer diagnosis and staging

“…Au–Ag core‐satellite nanoparticle was coated with BSA and polydopamine and conjugated with anti‐EGFR coating. Furthermore, for prostate cancer detection, p‐(imidazole)azo) benzenethiol Raman reporter attached with PEG‐AuNPs was used, which formed aggregates in the presence of extracellular zinc . Discrimination was achieved by the higher spectral intensity in healthy cells due to higher zinc concentration compared with prostate cancer cells.…”

Raman-Enhanced Spectroscopy (RESpect) Probe for Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

“…RS identifies chemical and molecular fingerprints of materials through inelastic scattering of photons with molecular bond vibrations that results in frequency energy shifts [10][11][12][13]. The corresponding vibrational energy is unique to tissue-specific molecular bonds which can characterize intrinsic molecular fingerprints of DNA, protein, and lipid content of specimens.…”

A Fluorescent Probe with Aggregation‐Induced Emission for Detecting Alkaline Phosphatase and Cell Imaging

“…[5][6][7] Although these methods can reflect the expression and activity of enzymes to some extent, they cannot be applied in living cells or organisms. [6] Fluorescence imaging, as an highly sensitive, fast-response and efficient tool, can be used to track the state, changes, and activities of targets in cells or even some living organisms; [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] thus it can be used for ALP dynamic detection. As for the fluorescent systems for detecting ALP,s mall-molecule fluorescent probesa re favored because of their good chemical modification, biocompatibility and low cost.…”