Raman Spectroscopy and Microscopy Applications in Cardiovascular Diseases: From Molecules to Organs

Abstract

Noninvasive and label-free vibrational spectroscopy and microscopy methods have shown great potential for clinical diagnosis applications. Raman spectroscopy is based on inelastic light scattering due to rotational and vibrational modes of molecular bonds. It has been shown that Raman spectra provide chemical signatures of changes in biological tissues in different diseases, and this technique can be employed in label-free monitoring and clinical diagnosis of several diseases, including cardiovascular studies. However, there are very few literature reviews available to summarize the state of art and future applications of Raman spectroscopy in cardiovascular diseases, particularly cardiac hypertrophy. In addition to conventional clinical approaches such as electrocardiography (ECG), echocardiogram (cardiac ultrasound), positron emission tomography (PET), cardiac computed tomography (CT), and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), applications of vibrational spectroscopy and microscopy will provide invaluable information useful for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Various in vivo and ex vivo investigations can potentially be performed using Raman imaging to study and distinguish pathological and physiological cardiac hypertrophies and understand the mechanisms of other cardiac diseases. Here, we have reviewed the recent literature on Raman spectroscopy to study cardiovascular diseases covering investigations on the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ level.

Morpho-molecular ex vivo detection and grading of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer using forward imaging probe based multimodal optical coherence tomography and Raman spectroscopy

“…RS provides information on molecular changes at a single cell level, [20][21][22][23] and has been extensively used for clinical tissue characterization. [24][25][26] It has been broadly applied in numerous studies for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, 27 biochemical characterization of human cells 28 and organs, 29 including the discrimination of brain tumors 30,31 and malignant breast tissues, [32][33][34] and extensive research in cervical cancer, [35][36][37] lung cancer, 38 and colon, 39 prostate 40 and bladder cancers. 41,42 RS has been readily implemented in fiber optic probes for a variety of pathologies of different organs.…”

A highly sensitive molecular structural probe applied to in situ biosensing of metabolites using PEDOT:PSS

“…Raman spectroscopy is a well‐known non‐destructive method for probing structural changes (Wood, Hollis, & Kim, ), such as those induced by biological interactions, thus serving as an excellent molecular sensor. Indeed, it has been successfully integrated into several biosensing applications including cell‐based biosensors (Chaichi, Prasad & Gartia, ), surface‐enhanced Raman biosensors (Laing, Jamieson, Faulds, & Graham, ; Pilot, Durante, Bhamidipati, & Fabris, ) and metabolite biosensors in saliva (Žukovskaja, Jahn, Weber, Cialla‐May, & Popp, ). Our work rises above the state of the art by combining an efficient electronic transducer with a structural probe to achieve high sensitivity and gain insight on the molecular interactions taking place upon sensing.…”

Renocardiac Syndrome Induced by Renal Ischemia and Reperfusion: Vibrational Markers

“…[6] This technique has been used in cells, tissues and biofluids studies presenting valuable findings related to pathologies. [7][8][9] Outstanding results concerning cardiac tissues were also reported on literature (see, e.g., [10]). For example, Nishiki-Muranish et al [11] analyzed Raman spectra of myocardial infarction and its repair in rats using the hypothesis that the myocardium in the course of myocardial infarction and its repair could be recognized by spontaneous Raman spectroscopy on the basis of chemical changes in myocardial tissues.…”