Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Cell Prolif. 2019 Jul;52(4):e12618. doi: 10.1111/cpr.12618. Epub 2019 Apr 29.
Early diagnosis of tumour cells is critically important for cancer treatment. Given that the tumour environment is slightly acidic, the pH value of the cell environment can be used as a criterion for tumour diagnosis. However, mapping pH in the cell environment with high resolution, high sensitivity and accuracy remains challenging.
Based on gold nanoflower as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate loading with p-mercaptobenzoic acid (MPA) as pH-responsive Raman reporter, a new SERS nanoprobe for pH mapping was developed.
This probe showed a characteristic Raman spectrum signal in response to the different pH in solutions or cells. The signal intensity is positively correlated to the pH value. Moreover, this probe is self-correctable, which can help eliminate the influence of probe concentration on the accuracy of pH measuring.
We demonstrate the pH mapping of cell environment using the probe, which can be used to distinguish normal cells and tumour cells. This method may provide a new imaging tool for early diagnosis of cancer.
肿瘤细胞的早期诊断对癌症治疗至关重要。鉴于肿瘤环境略呈酸性，细胞环境的 pH 值可作为肿瘤诊断的标准。然而，以高分辨率、高灵敏度和准确性对细胞环境中的 pH 值进行映射仍然具有挑战性。
基于金纳米花作为表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）基底，负载对巯基苯甲酸（MPA）作为 pH 响应的拉曼报告分子，开发了一种用于 pH 值映射的新型 SERS 纳米探针。
该探针在溶液或细胞中对不同 pH 值表现出特征性的拉曼光谱信号。信号强度与 pH 值呈正相关。此外，该探针具有自校正功能，有助于消除探针浓度对 pH 值测量准确性的影响。
我们使用该探针对细胞环境进行了 pH 值映射，可以区分正常细胞和肿瘤细胞。该方法可能为癌症的早期诊断提供一种新的成像工具。
