School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK.
School of Health and Life Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK.
Nanotheranostics. 2022 Mar 21;6(3):337-349. doi: 10.7150/ntno.71510. eCollection 2022.
Detection of solid tumours through tissue- from depths relevant to humans- has been a significant challenge for biomedical Raman spectroscopy. The combined use of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) imaging agents with deep Raman spectroscopy (DRS), i.e., surface enhanced deep Raman spectroscopy (SEDRS), offer prospects for overcoming such obstacles. In this study, we investigated the maximum detection depth through which the retrieval of SERS signal of a passively targeted biphenyl-4-thiol tagged gold nanoparticle (NP) imaging agent, injected subcutaneously into a mouse bearing breast cancer tumour, was possible. A compact 830 nm set-up with a hand-held probe and the flexibility of switching between offset, transmission and conventional Raman modalities was developed for this study. injection of the above SERS NP primary dose allowed surface tumour detection, whereas additional post mortem NP booster dose was required for detection of deeply seated tumours through heterogeneous animal tissue (comprising of proteins, fat, bone, organs, blood, and skin). The highest detection depth of 71 mm was probed using transmission, translating into a ~40% increase in detection depth compared to earlier reports. Such improvements in detection depth along with the inherent Raman chemical sensitivity brings SEDRS one step closer to future clinical cancer imaging technology.
从与人体相关的深度检测实体肿瘤一直是生物医学拉曼光谱学的一个重大挑战。表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）成像剂与深拉曼光谱（DRS）的联合使用，即表面增强深拉曼光谱（SEDRS），为克服这些障碍提供了前景。在这项研究中，我们研究了通过被动靶向联苯-4-巯基标记的金纳米粒子（NP）成像剂的 SERS 信号的最大检测深度，该成像剂被注射到患有乳腺癌肿瘤的小鼠的皮下。为这项研究开发了一种紧凑的 830nm 设置，带有手持探头，并具有在偏移、传输和常规拉曼模式之间切换的灵活性。上述 SERS NP 主剂量的注射允许进行表面肿瘤检测，而对于通过异质动物组织（包含蛋白质、脂肪、骨骼、器官、血液和皮肤）检测深层肿瘤，则需要额外的死后 NP 助推剂量。使用传输探测到的最高检测深度为 71mm，与早期报告相比，检测深度提高了约 40%。这种检测深度的提高以及固有的拉曼化学敏感性使 SEDRS 更接近未来的临床癌症成像技术。
