Highly accurate and label-free discrimination of single cancer cell using a plasmonic oxide-based nanoprobe.

Bao Yue Zhang; Pengju Yin; Yihong Hu; Crispin Szydzik; Muhammad Waqas Khan; Kai Xu; Peter Thurgood; Nasir Mahmood; Chaitali Dekiwadia; Sanjida Afrin; Yunyi Yang; Qijie Ma; Chris F McConville; Khashayar Khoshmanesh; Arnan Mitchell; Bo Hu; Sara Baratchi; Jian Zhen Ou
Abstract
The detection of cancer cells at the single-cell level enables many novel functionalities such as next-generation cancer prognosis and accurate cellular analysis. While surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely considered as an effective tool in a low-cost and label-free manner, however, it is challenging to discriminate single cancer cells with an accuracy above 90% mainly due to the poor biocompatibility of the noble-metal-based SERS agents. Here, we report a dual-functional nanoprobe based on dopant-driven plasmonic oxides, demonstrating a maximum accuracy above 90% in distinguishing single THP-1 cell from peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) and human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 from human macrophage cell line U937 based on their SERS patterns. Furthermore, this nanoprobe can be triggered by the bio-redox response from individual cells towards stimuli, empowering another complementary colorimetric cell detection, approximately achieving the unity discrimination accuracy at a single-cell level. Our strategy could potentially enable the future accurate and low-cost detection of cancer cells from mixed cell samples.
Journal BIOSENSORS & BIOELECTRONICS
ISSN 1873-4235
Published 15 Feb 2022
Volume 198
Issue
Pages 113814
DOI 10.1016/j.bios.2021.113814
Type Journal Article
Sponsorship