Bioorthogonal SERS Nanoprobes for Mulitplex Spectroscopic Detection, Tumor Cell Targeting, and Tissue Imaging

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique shows extraordinary features for a range of biological and biomedical applications. Herein, a series of novel bioorthogonal SERS nanoprobes were constructed with Gold nanoflower (AuNF) and Raman reporters, the signals of which were located in a Raman-silent region of biological samples. AS1411 aptamer was also co-conjugated with AuNF through a self-assembled monolayer coverage strategy. Multiplex SERS imaging using these nanoprobes with three different bioorthogonal small-molecule Raman reporters is successfully achieved with high multiplexing capacity in a biologically Raman-silent region. These Raman nanoprobes co-conjugated with AS1411 showed high affinity for tumor cells with overexpressed nucleolin and can be used for selective tumor cell screening and tissue imaging.National Key Basic Research Program of China ('973' Program) [2012CB720600, 2013CB933800]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [21422201, 21372018]; Innovation Team of Ministry of Education [BMU20110263]SCI(E)EIPubMedARTICLExinjingt@bjmu.edu.cn3712914-129182