Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Lab Chip. 2017 Mar 29;17(7):1306-1313. doi: 10.1039/c7lc00053g.
This paper reports on the synthesis and application of biocompatible and sensitive SERS nanoparticles for the study of uptake of nanoparticles into living cells in a microfluidic chip through surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The nanoparticles were fabricated as beta-cyclodextrin-coated silver nanoparticles (Ag@CD NPs) modified with para-aminothiophenol (p-ATP) and folic acid (FA) on the surface. The p-ATP molecules act as the Raman reporter while the FA tags have high affinity for folate receptors (FR) that are over-expressed on the surface cancerous cells, so that the nanoparticles can enter the cells and be monitored by the Raman reporter. Therefore, the nanoparticles could be utilized not only as cell invaders due to endocytosis but also as a SERS sensitive probe to monitor the effect of FR-targeted drugs such as dihydroartemisinin (DHA) that induce the population change of FR on the membrane of living cells. As a result, we have successfully demonstrated that we are able to employ the Ag@CD@p-ATP@FA NPs to evaluate the number of NPs entering living cells quantitatively and correspondingly the drug effect on cancer cells in a well-controlled way.
本文报道了生物相容性和灵敏的 SERS 纳米粒子的合成与应用，通过表面增强拉曼光谱（SERS）研究纳米粒子在微流控芯片中进入活细胞的情况。纳米粒子被制成β-环糊精包裹的银纳米粒子（Ag@CD NPs），表面修饰对氨基苯硫酚（p-ATP）和叶酸（FA）。p-ATP 分子作为拉曼报告分子，而 FA 标签对叶酸受体（FR）具有高亲和力，FR 在癌细胞表面过度表达，因此纳米粒子可以进入细胞，并通过拉曼报告分子进行监测。因此，这些纳米粒子不仅可以作为内吞作用的细胞入侵物，还可以作为 SERS 敏感探针来监测叶酸受体靶向药物（如二氢青蒿素（DHA））的效果，DHA 可以诱导活细胞膜上 FR 的群体变化。结果表明，我们成功地利用 Ag@CD@p-ATP@FA NPs 定量评估了进入活细胞的纳米粒子数量，并相应地以可控的方式评估了药物对癌细胞的作用。
