Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea.
KAIST Institute for Health Science and Technology (KIHST), KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea.
Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 8;12(1):159. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20413-8.
The quantitative label-free detection of neurotransmitters provides critical clues in understanding neurological functions or disorders. However, the identification of neurotransmitters remains challenging for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) due to the presence of noise. Here, we report spread spectrum SERS (ss-SERS) detection for the rapid quantification of neurotransmitters at the attomolar level by encoding excited light and decoding SERS signals with peak autocorrelation and near-zero cross-correlation. Compared to conventional SERS measurements, the experimental result of ss-SERS shows an exceptional improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of more than three orders of magnitude, thus achieving a high temporal resolution of over one hundred times. The ss-SERS measurement further allows the attomolar SERS detection of dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and glutamate without Raman reporters. This approach opens up opportunities not only for investigating the early diagnostics of neurological disorders or highly sensitive biomedical SERS applications but also for developing low-cost spectroscopic biosensing applications.
神经递质的定量无标记检测为理解神经功能或障碍提供了关键线索。然而，由于存在噪声，表面增强拉曼光谱（SERS）对神经递质的识别仍然具有挑战性。在这里，我们报告了扩展频谱 SERS（ss-SERS）检测，通过用峰自相关和近零互相关对激发光进行编码和解码 SERS 信号，实现了纳升级水平的神经递质的快速定量。与传统的 SERS 测量相比，ss-SERS 的实验结果显示信噪比提高了三个数量级以上，从而实现了超过一百倍的高时间分辨率。ss-SERS 测量还可以在没有拉曼报告者的情况下对多巴胺、血清素、乙酰胆碱、γ-氨基丁酸和谷氨酸进行纳升级 SERS 检测。这种方法不仅为研究神经疾病的早期诊断或高灵敏度生物医学 SERS 应用开辟了机会，也为开发低成本光谱生物传感应用开辟了机会。
