Raman Tweezers as a Diagnostic Tool of Hemoglobin-Related Blood Disorders

Abstract

This review presents the development of a Raman Tweezers system for detecting hemoglobin-related blood disorders at a single cell level. The study demonstrates that the molecular fingerprint insight provided by Raman analysis holds great promise for distinguishing between healthy and diseased cells in the field of biomedicine. Herein a Raman Tweezers system has been applied to investigate the effects of thalassemia, a blood disease quite diffuse in the Mediterranean Sea region. By resonant excitation of hemoglobin Raman bands, we examined the oxygenation capability of normal, alpha- and beta-thalassemic erythrocytes. A reduction of this fundamental red blood cell function, particularly severe for beta-thalassemia, has been found. Raman spectroscopy was also used to draw hemoglobin distribution inside single erythrocytes; the results confirmed the characteristic anomaly (target shape), occurring in thalassemia and some other blood disorders. The success of resonance Raman spectroscopy for thalassemia detection reported in this review provide an interesting starting point to explore the application of a Raman Tweezers system in the analysis of several blood disorders.

Spermatozoa quality assessment: a combined holographic and Raman microscopy approach

“…When the morphological analysis needs to be integrated with biochemical information, RS can be efficiently used. Indeed, RS is a sensitive and non-invasive method with resolution in the sub-micrometer range that allows the chemical assessment of single cells by detecting their biomolecule vibrations, serving as a cellular intrinsic 'fingerprint' 3,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] . It can be also used to provide pseudo-color images according to the Raman spectral band intensities allowing the identification of cell phenotype and physiological state [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] .…”

Embryo viability indexing using Raman spectroscopy of spent culture media

“…This method was widely used for many biological samples such as proteins [20], live cells [21,22], tissues [23], and other samples, both solid and in solution. Several diseases such as cardiovascular diseases [24], cancer [25], and blood diseases [26] were also studied with Raman spectroscopy. Our group [27] has already searched for evidence of preeclampsia at a molecular level using Raman spectra of serum samples, which were taken from both healthy and pregnant women with preeclampsia.…”

Raman sex sorting of bovine spermatozoa

“…Therefore, there is need of complementary and novel approaches to improve the sex predetermination. In terms of a label-free method, Raman spectroscopy (RS) could represent a perfect candidate as it detects vibrations of chemical bonds of molecules through the inelastic scattering of light [7][8][9][10]. It represents a sort of molecular 'fingerprint' of the sample providing detailed chemical information including cellular molecular composition, structure and physiological states, which enables to differentiate cell types and states [Il lS].…”