Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based biomicrofluidics systems for trace protein analysis

Design of Raman reporter-embedded magnetic/plasmonic hybrid nanostirrers for reliable microfluidic SERS biosensors

Magnetic-based microfluidic SERS biosensors hold great potential in various biological analyses due to their integrated advantages including easy manipulation, miniaturization and ultrasensitivity. However, it remains challenging to collect reliable SERS nanoprobe signals for quantitative analysis due to the irregular aggregation of magnetic carriers in a microfluidic chamber. Here, magnetic/plasmonic hybrid nanostirrers embedded with a Raman reporter are developed as capture carriers to improve the reliability of microfluidic SERS biosensors. Experimental results revealed that SERS signals from magnetic hybrid nanostirrers could serve as microenvironment beacons of their irregular aggregation, and a signal filtering method was proposed through exploring the relationship between the intensity range of beacons and the signal reproducibility of SERS nanoprobes using interleukin 6 as a model target analyte. Using the signal filtering method, reliable SERS nanoprobe signals with high reproducibility could be picked out from similar microenvironments according to their beacon intensity, and then the influence of irregular aggregation of magnetic carriers on the SERS nanoprobe could be eliminated. The filtered SERS nanoprobe signals also exhibited excellent repeatability from independent tests, which lay a solid foundation for a reliable working curve and subsequent accurate bioassay. This study provides a simple but promising route for reliable microfluidic SERS biosensors, which will further promote their practical application in biological analysis.

SERS-Based Biosensors Combined with Machine Learning for Medical Application

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has shown strength in non-invasive, rapid, trace analysis and has been used in many fields in medicine. Machine learning (ML) is an algorithm that can imitate human learning styles and structure existing content with the knowledge to effectively improve learning efficiency. Integrating SERS and ML can have a promising future in the medical field. In this review, we summarize the applications of SERS combined with ML in recent years, such as the recognition of biological molecules, rapid diagnosis of diseases, developing of new immunoassay techniques, and enhancing SERS capabilities in semi-quantitative measurements. Ultimately, the possible opportunities and challenges of combining SERS with ML are addressed.

Machine Learning Enhanced Optical Spectroscopy for Disease Detection

Optical spectroscopy plays an important role in disease detection. Improving the sensitivity and specificity of spectral detection has great importance in the development of accurate diagnosis. The development of artificial intelligence technology provides a great opportunity to improve the detection accuracy through machine learning methods. In this Perspective, we focus on the combination of machine learning methods with the optical spectroscopy methods widely used for disease detection, including absorbance, fluorescence, scattering, FTIR, terahertz, etc. By comparing the spectral analysis with different machine learning methods, we illustrate that the support vector machine and convolutional neural network are most effective, which have potential to further improve the classification accuracy to distinguish disease subtypes if these machine learning methods are used. This Perspective broadens the scope of optical spectroscopy enhanced by machine learning and will be useful for the development of disease detection.

Applications of hybridization chain reaction optical detection incorporating nanomaterials: A review

The development of powerful, simple and cost-effective signal amplifiers has significant implications for biological research and analysis. Hybridization chain reaction (HCR) has attracted increasing attention because of its enzyme-free, simple, and efficient amplification. In the HCR process, an initiator probe triggered a pair of metastable hairpins through a cross-opening process to propagate a chain reaction of hybridization events, yielding a long-nicked double-stranded nucleic acid structure. To achieve more noticeable signal amplification, nanomaterials, including graphene oxide, quantum dots, gold, silver, magnetic, and other nanoparticles, were integrated with HCR. Various types of colorimetric, fluorescence, plasmonic analyses or chemiluminescence optical sensing strategies incorporating nanomaterials have been developed to analyze various targets, such as nucleic acids, small biomolecules, proteins, and metal ions. This review summarized the recent advances of HCR technology pairing diverse nanomaterials in optical detection and discussed their challenges.

Cost-effective large-area Ag nanotube arrays for SERS detections: effects of nanotube geometry

This study demonstrated highly-ordered metallic nanotube arrays (MeNTAs) with a precisely controlled geometric shape to promote surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Using both simulation and experimental methods, we designed and fabricated MeNTAs with nanotube geometries that possess a large surface area to absorb probe molecules as well as geometric features capable of inducing hot spots for SERS enhancement. The proposed top-down wafer-scale lithographic and sputter-deposition process is a simple and cost-effective approach to the fabrication of 1 mm × 1 mm MeNTA at room temperature. Simulation results of nanotubes with various materials (Au, Ag, and Cu), diameters (100-1500 nm), geometric shapes (circle, equilateral triangle and square) and triangle corner curvatures (ranging from 0 to 300 nm) identified Ag triangles with sharp tips as the geometry best suited to SERS enhancement. The SERS spectra of crystal violet molecules generated from the Ag MeNTAs verified the patterns observed in computational simulations, wherein the effects of MeNTA on SERS decreased with an increase in the size of the nanotubes. Enhancement factor of 1.06 × 10⁹was obtained from our triangular Ag MeNTA, confirming its efficacy as an ultrahigh sensitivity SERS-active substrate.

Perspective of Future SERS Clinical Application Based on Current Status of Raman Spectroscopy Clinical Trials

Raman spectroscopy has emerged as a promising tool in biomedical analysis and clinical diagnosis. The development of surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) improved the detection limit with ultrahigh sensitivity and simplicity. More and more Raman spectroscopy clinical trials (R-PCT) have been conducted recently. However, there is a lack of an up-to-date review summarizing the current status of Raman clinical trials performed until now. Hence, the clinical trials for Raman were retrieved from the International Clinical Trials Registration Platform. We summarized the clinical characteristics of 55 registered Raman spectroscopy clinical trials (R-RSCTs) and 44 published Raman spectroscopy clinical trials (P-RSCTs). This review could assist researchers and clinicians to understand the current status of Raman spectroscopy clinical research and perhaps could benefit the reasonable and accurate design of future SERS studies.

Hydrated Ionic Liquids Boost the Trace Detection Capacity of Proteins on TiO2 Support

Trace detection based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has attracted considerable attention, and exploiting efficient strategies to stretch the limit of detection and understanding the mechanisms on molecular level are of utmost importance. In this work, we use ionic liquids (ILs) as trace additives in a protein-TiO2 system, allowing us to obtain an exceptionally low limit of detection down to 10-9 M. The enhancement factors (EFs) were determined to 2.30 × 104, 6.17 × 104, and 1.19 × 105, for the three systems: one without ILs, one with ILs in solutions, and one with ILs immobilized on the TiO2 substrate, respectively, corresponding to the molecular forces of 1.65, 1.32, and 1.16 nN quantified by the atomic force microscopy. The dissociation and following hydration of ILs, occurring in the SERS system, weakened the molecular forces but instead improved the electron transfer ability of ILs, which is the major contribution for the observed excellent detection. The weaker diffusion of the hydrated IL ions immobilized on the TiO2 substrate did provide a considerably greater EF value, compared to the ILs in the solution. This work clearly demonstrates the importance of the hydration of ions, causing an improved electron transfer ability of ILs and leading to an exceptional SERS performance in the field of trace detection. Our results should stimulate further development to use ILs in SERS and related applications in bioanalysis, medical diagnosis, and environmental science.

Interactions of Whey Proteins with Metal Ions

Whey proteins tend to interact with metal ions, which have implications in different fields related to human life quality. There are two impacts of such interactions: they can provide opportunities for applications in food and nutraceuticals, but may lead to analytical challenges related to their study and outcomes for food processing, storage, and food interactions. Moreover, interactions of whey proteins with metal ions are complicated, requiring deep understanding, leading to consequences, such as metalloproteins, metallocomplexes, nanoparticles, or aggregates, creating a biologically active system. To understand the phenomena of metal–protein interactions, it is important to develop analytical approaches combined with studies of changes in the biological activity and to analyze the impact of such interactions on different fields. The aim of this review was to discuss chemistry of β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin, and lactotransferrin, their interactions with different metal ions, analytical techniques used to study them and the implications for food and nutraceuticals.

SERS-Active Substrates Nanoengineering Based on e-Beam Evaporated Self-Assembled Silver Films

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been intensely studied as a possible solution in the fields of analytical chemistry and biosensorics for decades. Substantial research has been devoted to engineering signal enhanced SERS-active substrates based on semi-continuous nanostructured silver and gold films, or agglomerates of micro- and nanoparticles in solution. Herein, we demonstrate the high-amplitude spectra of myoglobin precipitated out of ultra-low concentration solutions (below 10 μg/mL) using e-beam evaporated continuous self-assembled silver films. We observe up to 105 times Raman signal amplification with purposefully designed SERS-active substrates in comparison with the control samples. SERS-active substrates are obtained by electron beam evaporation of silver thin films with well controlled nanostructured surface morphology. The characteristic dimensions of the morphology elements vary in the range from several to tens of nanometers. Using optical confocal microscopy we demonstrate that proteins form a conformation on the surface of the self-assembled silver film, which results in an effective enhancement of giant Raman scattering signal. We investigate the various SERS substrates surface morphologies by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in combination with deep data analysis with Gwyddion software and a number of machine learning techniques. Based on these results, we identify the most significant film surface morphology patterns and evaporation recipe parameters to obtain the highest amplitude SERS spectra. Moreover, we demonstrate the possibility of automated selection of suitable morphological parameters to obtain the high-amplitude spectra. The developed AFM data auto-analysis procedures are used for smart optimization of SERS-active substrates nanoengineering processes.