Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, Hubei Nuclear Solid Physics Key Laboratory and Center for Ion Beam Application, School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine and Center for Gene Diagnosis, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, China.
Small. 2019 Mar;15(11):e1805516. doi: 10.1002/smll.201805516. Epub 2019 Feb 1.
Virus detection and analysis are of critical importance in biological fields and medicine. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has shown great promise in small molecule and even single molecule detection, and can provide fingerprint signals of molecules. Despite the powerful detection capabilities of SERS, the size discrepancy between the SERS "hot spots" (generally, <10 nm) and viruses (usually, sub-100 nm) yields poor detection reliability of viruses. Inspired by the concept of molecular imprinting, a volume-enhanced Raman scattering (VERS) substrate composed of hollow nanocones at the bottom of microbowls (HNCMB) is developed. The hollow nanocones of the resulting VERS substrates serve a twofold purpose: 1) extending the region of Raman signal enhancement from the nanocone surface (e.g., surface "hot spots") to the hollow area within the cone (e.g., volume "hot spots")-a novel method of Raman signal enhancement, and 2) directing analyte such as viruses of a wide range of sizes to those VERS "hot spots" while simultaneously increasing the surface area contributing to SERS. Using HNCMB VERS substrates, greatly improved Raman signals of single viruses are demonstrated, an achievement with important implications in disease diagnostics and monitoring, biomedical fields, as well as in clinical treatment.
病毒检测和分析在生物领域和医学中至关重要。表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）在小分子甚至单分子检测方面显示出巨大的潜力，并且可以提供分子的指纹信号。尽管 SERS 具有强大的检测能力，但 SERS“热点”（通常<10nm）与病毒（通常<100nm）之间的尺寸差异导致病毒的检测可靠性较差。受分子印迹概念的启发，开发了一种由微碗底部的中空纳米锥组成的体积增强拉曼散射（VERS）基底（HNCMB）。所得 VERS 基底的中空纳米锥具有双重作用：1）将拉曼信号增强区域从纳米锥表面（例如表面“热点”）扩展到锥内的中空区域（例如体积“热点”）——这是一种新颖的拉曼信号增强方法，2）引导各种大小的分析物（如病毒）进入那些 VERS“热点”，同时增加对 SERS 有贡献的表面积。使用 HNCMB VERS 基底，成功地演示了单病毒的拉曼信号大大增强，这在疾病诊断和监测、生物医学领域以及临床治疗方面具有重要意义。
