Plasmonic SERS Au Nanosunflowers for Sensitive and Label-Free Diagnosis of DNA Base Damage in Stimulus-Induced Cell Apoptosis

Abstract

Molecular diagnosis and accurate damage analysis of complex genomic DNAs in tumor cells are crucial to the theranostics of cancers but still a huge challenge. Herein, by designed preparation of a uniform plasmonic sunflower-like assembly gold (Au) nanostructure that is capable of efficient DNA capture and providing high-density gap-plasmon “hot spots” for adequate surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) enhancement, we succeeded in sensitive and reliable label-free SERS detection of DNA damage in electrostimulus-induced apoptotic cancer cells at the DNA base level for the first time. The SERS results showed that the external electrostimulus (at 1.2 V, for 5 min) was almost harmless to normal healthy cells, but it caused pronounced double strand break and adenine base damage in cancer cell DNAs, which effectively destroyed the reproduction and transcription of DNAs and ultimately induced cell apoptosis. The developed sensing platform and method are promising for cell study of genetically related diseases.

Individual Plasmonic Nanoprobes for Biosensing and Bioimaging: Recent Advances and Perspectives

“…[ 166 ] For example, Qi and coworkers designed a uniform sunflower‐like assembly gold nanostructure, which was used to capture DNA with high efficiency and provide high‐density gap‐plasmon “hot spots”, and real‐time monitored electrostimulus‐induced DNA damage in apoptotic cancer cells at the DNA base level. [ 79 ]…”

“…The optical, chemical, and catalytic properties of nanoprobes, which are dependent on their morphology and electron density, [ 33–37 ] have fueled the design of nanoprobes for applications of PNPs ( Table 1 ). [ 38–80 ] To satisfy the different requirements for the DFM technique, a variety of nanoprobes, including gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), copper nanoparticles (CuNPs), and aluminum (Al)‐based nanostructures have been synthesized. [ 81–85 ] The most commonly employed nanoprobes are AuNPs and AgNPs because of their excellent ability to support plasmons.…”

Electrostimulus-associated PD-L1 expression on cell membrane revealed by immune SERS nanoprobes

“…Electrostimulation (ES) is considered an effective method for the treatment of various diseases, such as Parkinson's, 11 neuro repair diseases, 12 and cancers. 13 It has also been adopted to actualise the controlled release of drugs and gene regulation. 13,14 Jin's studies used the ES method to realise the release of cytochrome c, activation of caspase-3 and exteriorisation of phosphoserine to accelerate cell apoptosis.…”

Structural Recognition of Triple-Stranded DNA by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

“…This enabled the application of SERS as an ultrasensitive analytical approach for the structural characterization of (bio)molecular species as well as sensing tool for their detection and quantification [11][12][13]. However, while the use of SERS in indirect approaches for nucleic acids sensing has been extensively dealt with in the literature, its wider use as an ultrasensitive analytical tool for this class of biomolecules via the acquisition of their intrinsic SERS vibrational fingerprinting (i.e., direct SERS) has been traditionally far less explored, until relatively recently [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Our group devised a novel approach based on the use of positively charged silver colloids as plasmonic-enhancers which successfully tackled prior issues associated with the reproducible acquisition of reliable SERS spectra of nucleic acids at low concentrations [19,23,24].…”