Label-free plasmonic nanostar probes to illuminate in vitro membrane receptor recognition

Abstract

Peptide functionalized plasmonic nanostars evince Raman signals from targeted receptors in cells and modulate protein corona formation, improving targeting.

Comparison of 4-Mercaptobenzoic Acid Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy-Based Methods for pH Determination in Cells

“…25 The enhanced electric fields enable SERS detection of nanostars without aggregating the particles, a condition typically required with colloidal gold. 26 These increased electromagnetic field enhancements provided by gold nanostars have been used for a variety of SERS sensing applications including extracellular biomarker detection, 27 intracellular RNA detection, 28 selective tumor imaging, 29 imaging of cell membrane receptors, 30 and pH sensing.…”

Intracellular optical probing with gold nanostars

“…Of the known surfactant-free synthesis routes, 11,[43][44][45] generation of the nanostars in 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer for reducing, as capping agent and growth director is used here to ensure compatibility with the cell culture conditions. 34,46 Different from previous work that aimed to circumvent the formation of a corona determined by the biological environment due to its potential interference with other targeting tasks, 31 here, we study the molecular structure and interactions of such a biomolecular corona of different nanostars in the cell culture and when they are contained in the endolysosomal system of the cells.…”

Metal Nanoparticles‐Enhanced Biosensors: Synthesis, Design and Applications in Fluorescence Enhancement and Surface‐enhanced Raman Scattering

“…The Raman signal from the cysteine residue in the protein allows to monitor this integrin-specific interaction via SERS. [170] In another study, Zhang et al have designed a specific organic molecule attached to the surface of Au@silica nanorod with enhanced Raman signal correlated to the amount of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase inside the cell. [120] The SERS probes can also be used for the visualization of cancer cells.…”

“…For example, gold nanostars have been used to study the interaction between avb3 integrin on human metastatic colon cancer cells and the arginine−glycine−aspartic acid (RGD) peptide. The Raman signal from the cysteine residue in the protein allows to monitor this integrin‐specific interaction via SERS . In another study, Zhang et al.…”