Tang Mingjie, Zhang Mingkun, Fu Ying, Chen Ligang, Li Dandan, Zhang Hua, Yang Zhongbo, Wang Chunlei, Xiu Peng, Wilksch Jonathan J, Luo Yang, Han Jiaguang, Yang Haijun, Wang Huabin
Research Center of Super-Resolution Optics & Chongqing Engineering Research Center of High-Resolution and Three-Dimensional Dynamic Imaging Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China; Chongqing School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China.
Department of Chemistry, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China.
Biosens Bioelectron. 2023 Dec 1;241:115697. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2023.115697. Epub 2023 Sep 18.
Nicotine exposure can lead to neurological impairments and brain tumors, and a label-free and nondestructive detection technique is urgently required by the scientific community to assess the effects of nicotine on neural cells. Herein, a terahertz (THz) time-domain attenuated total reflection (TD-ATR) spectroscopy approach is reported, by which the effects of nicotine on normal and cancerous neural cells, i.e., HEB and U87 cells, are successfully investigated in a label/stain-free and nondestructive manner. The obtained THz absorption coefficients of HEB cells exposed to low-dose nicotine and high-dose nicotine are smaller and larger, respectively, than the untreated cells. In contrast, the THz absorption coefficients of U87 cells treated by nicotine are always smaller than the untreated cells. The THz absorption coefficients can be well related to the proliferation properties (cell number and compositional changes) and morphological changes of neural cells, by which different types of neural cells are differentiated and the viabilities of neural cells treated by nicotine are reliably assessed. Collectively, this work sheds new insights on the effects of nicotine on neural cells, and provides a useful tool (THz TD-ATR spectroscopy) for the study of chemical-cell interactions.
尼古丁暴露会导致神经损伤和脑肿瘤，科学界迫切需要一种无标记、无损的检测技术来评估尼古丁对神经细胞的影响。在此，我们报道了一种太赫兹（THz）时域衰减全反射（TD-ATR）光谱方法，通过该方法成功地以无标记/无染色、无损的方式研究了尼古丁对正常和癌性神经细胞（即HEB和U87细胞）的影响。暴露于低剂量尼古丁和高剂量尼古丁的HEB细胞的太赫兹吸收系数分别比未处理细胞的小和大。相比之下，用尼古丁处理的U87细胞的太赫兹吸收系数总是小于未处理细胞的。太赫兹吸收系数与神经细胞的增殖特性（细胞数量和成分变化）以及形态变化密切相关，据此可以区分不同类型的神经细胞，并可靠地评估用尼古丁处理的神经细胞的活力。总的来说，这项工作为尼古丁对神经细胞的影响提供了新的见解，并为研究化学-细胞相互作用提供了一种有用的工具（太赫兹TD-ATR光谱）。
