Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering-Based Immunoassay Technologies for Detection of Disease Biomarkers

Abstract

Detection of biomarkers is of vital importance in disease detection, management, and monitoring of therapeutic efficacy. Extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of novel diagnostic methods that detect and quantify biomarkers with higher sensitivity and reliability, contributing to better disease diagnosis and prognosis. When it comes to such devastating diseases as cancer, these novel powerful methods allow for disease staging as well as detection of cancer at very early stages. Over the past decade, there have been some advances in the development of platforms for biomarker detection of diseases. The main focus has recently shifted to the development of simple and reliable diagnostic tests that are inexpensive, accurate, and can follow a patient’s disease progression and therapy response. The individualized approach in biomarker detection has been also emphasized with detection of multiple biomarkers in body fluids such as blood and urine. This review article covers the developments in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) and related technologies with the primary focus on immunoassays. Limitations and advantages of the SERS-based immunoassay platform are discussed. The article thoroughly describes all components of the SERS immunoassay and highlights the superior capabilities of SERS readout strategy such as high sensitivity and simultaneous detection of a multitude of biomarkers. Finally, it introduces recently developed strategies for in vivo biomarker detection using SERS.

Microfluidic chip for non-invasive analysis of tumor cells interaction with anti-cancer drug doxorubicin by AFM and Raman spectroscopy

“…Microfluidics in combination with SERS has gained respect as an analytical technique with attractive chemical and biological applications in order to enhance the Raman signal, such as immunoassay, 22,23 in-solution strategy, 24,25 nanoparticles embedded inside the microfluidic channel. 15,24 Nevertheless, the SERS technique must introduce external nanomaterials for Raman signal enhancement purpose, the enhanced Raman signals only provide selective structural information (typically from the Raman reporter molecules) and did not usually reflect the original signals from cells themselves.…”

Adenosine Triphosphate-Encapsulated Liposomes with Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering-Based Immunoassays

“…Immunoassays have become an important analytical technique for the early diagnosis of disease and monitoring the efficacy of treatment [ 1 ]. The immunoassays generate a measurable signal in response to biomarker binding.…”

“…In sandwich immunoassays, the secondary antibody is usually labeled with specialized markers to determine the number of secondary antibody molecules, representing the amount of captured biomarker molecules. Various readout tools have been developed and implemented for the last several decades, including scintillation counting [ 2 ], fluorescence [ 3 ], chemiluminescence [ 4 ], and electrochemical signal [ 5 , 6 ], enzymes [ 7 ], and quantum dots [ 1 , 8 ]. Among these methods, radio-labeled immunoassays (RIAs) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are common because of their low cost and convenience [ 1 ].…”

“…Fluorescence-based techniques have been widely used as a diagnostic tool for immunoassays. However, they have several intrinsic drawbacks, including a poor limit-of-detection (LOD), photobleaching, and limit of multiplex detection [ 1 ].…”

“…Because of the strong enhancement of Raman signals for molecules adsorbed on metal nanostructures, such as silver and gold, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) can overcome the inherent weaknesses of Raman spectroscopy [ 1 ]. In addition, the nondestructive and ultrasensitive, as well as its multiplex capability, allow the SERS technique to be effectively utilized in sensitive detection of analytes [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”