Silica Nanospheres Coated Silver Islands as an Effective Opto-Plasmonic SERS Active Platform for Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers

Abstract

The in vitro diagnostics of cancer are not represented well yet, but the need for early-stage detection is undeniable. In recent decades, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has emerged as an efficient, adaptable, and unique technique for the detection of cancer molecules in their early stages. Herein, we demonstrate an opto-plasmonic hybrid structure for sensitive detection of the prostate cancer biomarker sarcosine using silica nanospheres coated silver nano-islands as a facile and efficient SERS active substrate. The SERS active platform has been developed via thin (5–15 nm) deposition of silver islands using a simple and cost-effective Radio Frequency (RF) sputtering technique followed by the synthesis and decoration of silica nanospheres (~500 nm) synthesized via Stober’s method. It is anticipated that the coupling of Whispering Gallery Modes and photonic nano-jets in SiO2 nanospheres induce Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) in Ag nano-islands, which is responsible for the SERS enhancement. The as-fabricated SERS active platform shows a linear response in the physiological range (10 nM to 100 μM) and an extremely low limit of detection (LOD) of 1.76 nM with a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and enhancement factor ~2 × 107. The findings suggest that our fabricated SERS platform could be potentially used for the rapid detection of bio-chemical traces with high sensitivity.

Application of SERS Nanoparticles for Imaging for Fast, Sensitive and Selective Cancer Screening: A Review

“…These results suggest that B-TiO 2 could be used as sensitive and biocompatible SERS probes to identify MCF-7 breast cancer cells quickly and accurately [16] Prostate cancer: Silica is commonly used as a coating for SERS nanoparticles however, it is also used as the nanoparticle core in SERS applications for cancer imaging [87]. Silica nanoparticles decorated on silver nano-islands have been used as a SERS substrate for the facile and efficient sensing of the prostate cancer biomarker sarcosine [87]. The designed SERS platform had a remarkably low Limit of Detection (LOD) of 1.76nM and an enhancement fact of 2x10 7 .…”

“…The synergistic effects from the crystal-amorphous core-shell structure demonstrated remarkable SERS activity with EF up to~10 5 for the Raman reporter molecule 4NBT and facilitated photo-induced charge-transfer between the target molecules and SERS substrate. These results suggest that B-TiO 2 could be used as sensitive and biocompatible SERS probes to identify MCF-7 breast cancer cells quickly and accurately [16] Prostate cancer: Silica is commonly used as a coating for SERS nanoparticles however, it is also used as the nanoparticle core in SERS applications for cancer imaging [87]. Silica nanoparticles decorated on silver nano-islands have been used as a SERS substrate for the facile and efficient sensing of the prostate cancer biomarker sarcosine [87].…”

Recent Trends in SERS-Based Plasmonic Sensors for Disease Diagnostics, Biomolecules Detection, and Machine Learning Techniques

“…With the mechanism for detection being the same, SERS has been extensively used for the detection of several other cancers, including gastric [ 189 ], oral, liver, ovarian [ 190 , 191 ], and prostate cancers [ 192 , 193 , 194 , 195 , 196 , 197 ]. Gastric cancer diagnoses have been performed using different plasmonic materials by analyzing SERS spectra of serum samples [ 198 , 199 , 200 ], blood plasma [ 201 ], exosomes [ 202 ], extracellular vesicles [ 203 ], telomerase [ 204 ], saliva [ 205 ], and ctDNA [ 206 ].…”

Two-dimensional ReSe2 nanosheets as a high-performance photocatalyst

“…4 Numerous industrial sectors, including the leather business, as well as the food, plastics, cosmetics, and textile industries, use organic dyes extensively. [5][6][7][8] The number of organic pollutants mixing directly with the environment has increased rapidly due to developments in the petrochemical and organic industries. As a result, the discharge of industrial effluent into aquatic systems causes pollution and poses a substantial risk to human health, which is one of the main environmental problems that need prompt action.…”